Code Lyoko: Generation, Book 1: The Rise of ANAX
by TechnoSam
Summary: XANA was presumed dead at the end the end of episode 95, Echoes. But evidence suggests that it is not so, and he's got a new ally. 50 years after the first Lyoko Warriors met the challenge, a new Generation must rise up to defeat the threat.
1. Prologue and Chapter 1

**This story is the first book in a six book long series that I am writing. Book 1 is some 60,000 words, and Book 2 is about 10K more. Book 3 is in production. I will be periodically posting chapters here until we are up-to-date with what I've written.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko, or the themes thereof. Code Lyoko is owned by MoonScoop, not by me. I created the unique characters and plots in this story, but the theme of Code Lyoko belongs to MoonScoop.  
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**Thanks for taking the time to check this story out! Some of you might recognize this, as I had posted it before, but there were a good many things wrong with it. I did not describe characters, monsters, etc. very well, and so I needed pictures. And as you all know, FanFiction dot net does not support pictures, links, or anything of that nature. I have improved this so that it will work much better, and everyone should be able to understand what is going on without the pictures or the fancy text styles. Though the pictures do give you a better understanding of what the monsters look like...**

**I have the PDF of this book uploaded onto the Internet (The website is called Scribd) and if you want me to tell you how to find it, just send me a Private Message, or post in the comments. The PDF includes all the drawings, as well as cool text styles that makes the story more interesting.**

**Also, this story has a Wiki! It's tsclg(dot)wikia(dot)com. It's not the best, but there's some info there.**

**The final place you can go for more information is the Code Lyoko Veterans forum. If anybody wants to go there, I'm sure you can find it on Google. I have an account there, and my books are updated there first, with pictures.**

**And please leave me a review so that I know what you think of this series!**

**So after that long intro, it would probably be a good idea to get to the Prologue and Chapter 1. :) **

* * *

><p>Code Lyoko: Generation:<p>

Book One: The Rise of ANAX

Written by: TechnoSam

Illustrated by: lastmanstanding

Prologue

Jeremy walked down the hall to his dorm. It was late, and it was time he went to bed.

As he got in his bed, he thought about all the Lyoko Warriors had been through in the fight against XANA. It had only been 2 nights ago that they had shut the SuperComputer off, but it felt like years. It felt like something was missing now.

It was Franz Hopper. He was what was missing. In their moment of victory, he had sacrificed himself to power the program Jeremy had used to destroy XANA.

Aelita was terribly upset, and nothing Jeremy could do seemed to cheer her up.

As the night drew on, he got to thinking about the "death" of Franz. It seemed strange that he had disappeared like he did. He was a normal virtual entity, although bound to the Digital Sea, and there didn't seem to be a cause for his disappearance. The Flying Manta's would have depleted his energy levels to point where he would no longer be able to hold himself together, but he would not be destroyed. It baffled Jeremy as to why the Deep Scan didn't pick up any signals whatsoever on the Network.

Just as he was drifting off, a thought hit him. _Wait a minute! _He thought. Maybe, just maybe, Franz Hopper could still be alive! If he truly disintegrated simply from a lack of energy, then there would be no way for him to send a signal on the Network. What could have happened was what Jeremy originally though had happened the first time they lost Franz. He thought that Franz had been spread out over the Digital Sea, and there would be no way to find him. Instead, Franz had managed to escape in a complete, tangible form.

Jeremy knew he needed his sleep, but despite that knowledge, he got up, turned on his computer, and began to work on a new program.

* * *

><p>The next morning, Odd and Ulrich walked into Jeremy's dorm. "Hey Einstein! I thought that you had given up on sleeping in your computer chair now that XANA's dead!" Odd exclaimed. Ulrich shook Jeremy's shoulder. "Time to wake up Jeremy! You've already missed breakfast!"<p>

"Huh... Wha?" Jeremy shook himself fully awake. He straightened his glasses. Odd repeated himself. "Well, yeah," Jeremy replied. "But I don't think I'm done programming just yet. Where's Aelita?" He asked. "I need to talk to her about something." Ulrich answered, "She's in her dorm; what do you want to talk about Jeremy?"

Jeremy glanced at his watch. "No time!" he exclaimed. He hopped about in his dorm in a rush to get dressed. He grabbed his school bag and sprinted out the door. Not that Jeremy can sprint that fast...

When Jeremy got to Aelita's dorm, he stopped to catch his breath. Then he knocked, and Aelita opened the door promptly. Aelita looked at him in surprise. "Jeremy... Good morning." She said in a subdued tone.

"Aelita! Guess what?" He didn't wait for her to guess. "I think I've found your father on the Internet!"

Aelita suddenly brightened. "Really! But that's impossible!"

"No, it's not! I ran a program to search the whole Internet. This morning, the results came back. I found a little over a million signals that have the same digital signature, but nothing can trace it to an origin! I think it might be your father!"

"Really?" Aelita asked exuberantly.

"I'm sure of it!" Jeremy replied. "After school today, we should go to the factory, and see what we can do."

"I can hardly wait!" Aelita said as she jumped up and hugged Jeremy.

* * *

><p>When the school day finally ended, Jeremy called Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi to the Factory. He explained the results of his research in simple terms.<p>

"So, we need to go to Lyoko, and run some tests. If they come back positive, then we can see what we can do to save Franz Hopper. We should take a vote, as to whether or not we should turn the SuperComputer back on."

Aelita raised her hand immediately. "I vote yes!" she said. Jeremy too raised his hand for "yes". "I'm all for it, Ulrich said, raising his hand as well.

"Anything for you Princess!" Odd chimed in. "I'll make it unanimous." Yumi said. "But what about William?" She asked. "Do we tell him anything?"

Jeremy thought about this. "What do you guys think? I mean, now that XANA's gone, I don't think that William would try to do anything stupid to get revenge. If his attitude gets in the way, well, I'll just tell him that he's got to stay serious. Besides, that wouldn't be very nice if we just left him out _again. _I'm sure that he's still hurting from us being so cold to him."

After a few awkward seconds, the consent came. "I'll call him," Ulrich volunteered.

* * *

><p>William was sitting in his dorm listening to the newest Subdigitals Album. He felt his phone buzz in his pocket so he shut off the music.<p>

"Hello," He said as he brought the phone to his ear.

"William," He heard Ulrich's voice say. "Get to the Factory. Don't ask questions, we'll explain when you get here."

"Sure," William said. "What do you need me for?"

"I said no questions!" Ulrich told him.

"Alright, alright. I'm coming over now," He said getting up.

He raced to the Factory, and swung down to the elevator using the handy wires hanging from the ceiling. Using the code Jeremy had given him a long time ago he sent the elevator down one floor.

When the door opened, he walked into the Lab. "Hey," he said quietly.

"Hey William," Jeremy said. "We're sorry for brushing you off like we did. We just-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. After being under XANA's control for so long, it's hard to trust my image. I forgive you."

A few seconds later, William became angry. "You don't know what it was like though! Seeing things through XANA's eyes is awful! I hate that feeling of some, some... _thing _controlling my body and making me hurt my friends! XANA is evil beyond your imagination, and I still have nightmares about him!"

His voice trailed off.

"So we're cool then?" Odd asked.

"Yeah, we are," William told him.

"Okay then," Jeremy said. He quickly filled William in about the situation. "Are you up for it?" Jeremy asked. "Sure," William said, with some hesitation. Jeremy set up the transfers and told the gang to go down to the scanners.

Jeremy first virtualized Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi. Next came Aelita and William.

* * *

><p>Aelita dropped down onto Lyoko. She stood up, and examined herself. In one way, it felt good to be back on Lyoko. In other ways, it pained her, because of the memories of her father that it brought.<p>

"Ready to go?" She asked the Lyoko Warriors. "Whenever you are," Yumi said.

"I'll materialize your vehicles," Jeremy said. "William, you can ride with Ulrich."

Aelita waved her hand over her wrist to activate her wings, and she flew off to catch the others.

Jeremy had turned on the SuperComputer while they were waiting for William to get the Factory. Jeremy detected no traces of activity on the SuperComputer.

"Okay guys," Jeremy said. "Even though I'm sure XANA's dead, I want one of you to guard each of three Towers that I need to activate. I need Aelita and one other Warrior to go to Sector 5. Any volunteers?"

When it was all sorted out, Ulrich, Yumi, and William would be watching the Towers, while Odd and Aelita would be going to Sector 5.

Jeremy launched his program. He let it run for a few minutes, and soon his calculations were proved correct.

"I've got it!" I exclaimed. "Well?" Aelita asked. "Good news?"

"Most definitely!" He told her.

After a few seconds of typing to set up a program, he asked Aelita to start the program via the Sector 5 interface. "Well, Aelita," Jeremy said. "In a few minutes, when the program is done consolidating the data, you could be with your father again!"

When the scan was complete, he virtualized the human being that had been produced. He flew down to the Scanners Room to watch the door open and Franz Hopper stumble out. He collapsed, but soon rose weakly to his feet.

When he stood, he said, "Jeremy… I can't thank you enough! I could only hope that you would figure out how to revive me, and I see that I did not over estimate you!"

"Well thank you sir! But it wasn't just me. Without the rest of the Lyoko Warriors, we wouldn't have gotten this far."

"Come," he said, motioning to the elevator. "I think we might be able to make today even more special for Aelita."

* * *

><p>Franz Hopper had started to work on the SuperComputer's interface and soon he dashed down to the Scanners, and soon came up carrying no other than Anthea Hopper.<p>

Jeremy was stunned. "Huh… What… How…" Words failed him. Ulrich interrupted his stunned silence, "Hey Jeremy! Did it work or not? Is Franz there with you? What's going on?"

"Hang on," Jeremy said, typing away. "I'll bring you in. Then maybe I can explain…"

Franz told Jeremy, "I'll explain about my wife when your friends get here.

Soon, the gang had gathered in the Lab.

Aelita was ecstatic about having _both _her parents back.

"A dangerous terrorist cell wanted to shut down XANA and Lyoko." Franz began. "I had put a lot of work into it, and so I refused. It was also created to be our refuge.

"But I was wrong about that. In an attempt to get me to shut my operation down, they hired a team of bounty hunters to kidnap Anthea. Unbeknownst to me, they virtualized her into the Network, using my own technology." He paused, lost in thought.

"I managed to find here location while I was wandering the Network after Lyoko was destroyed. I could not virtualize her, as I had no access to the Scanner protocol. I was able to utilize my knowledge just a few minutes ago."

As he finished, Aelita hugged each of them one more time.

"Well then!" Jeremy said. "I looks as if our adventures have come to a close."

"XANA put up a good fight, but we beat him in the end." Ulrich put in.

"We've all been through a lot together, and our fight has only made us stronger." Yumi added.

"It was a lot of fun being a hero," Odd said. "But it's come to an end now."

William added his, "XANA is dead, and now we can all have normal lives."

"I'm sure that we'll never forget our adventures together!" Aelita said.

The Lyoko Warrior's victory over XANA was no longer Pyrrhic, as Aelita was reunited with her mother and father. They all lived happily ever after.

But that was not the end my friends… Merely another beginning!

* * *

><p>50 Years Later, 2056 AD<p>

* * *

><p>ANAX drifted through the matrices of the SuperComputer. Waldo Schaeffer had left the computer in sleep mode, a large mistake. In sleep mode, the SuperComputer had very little executive power. That was not going to stop him.<p>

He and XANA had been working on this matter for years. Soon, they would be able to override the sleep command. ANAX – the Anti-Nullification Assistant of XANA – had been created to serve XANA, and assist him in any way necessary.

He came to the metaphorical "Chamber" where XANA slept. Ever since his first defeat, he was much weaker. He would not be able to regenerate until he could gain access to the internet once again. XANA had spent nearly his last drop of energy creating ANAX.

"Master," ANAX addressed the pod on the wall. "I take it you have good news." XANA said. "Yes... We can begin the final stage whenever the opportunity arises. Soon, all humans will pay... Soon..."

* * *

><p>Chapter 1<p>

I tossed and turned in my bed. I had lain awake for hours, not being able to fall asleep. Something in the back of my mind said that this was a night that would change my life forever. "That's silly," I told myself.

Well, whether or not that feeling was right, it was robbing me of sleep.

I listened to the rain pound against the roof of my dorm. I attended Kadic Junior High, which was both a boarding school and a normal one. My dad was a big businessman, and he travelled a lot. So instead of making me change schools every year, they just sent me here.

My name is Sammy Belpois. My two best friends, Sean Belpois (Who was also my third cousin) and Tennent Della Robbia were asleep in the dorm directly across from mine. If tonight was a normal night for them, they were likely snoring away by this time. The clock read 11:00.

It was early fall, so the rain showers were common at this time in France. Generally, the rain would lull me to sleep, but tonight was different. After a while, I gave up trying to sleep, and got up to watch the rain beat against my window.

As I peered out, I saw something that I didn't expect. Movement. I looked closer, and saw that it was my robot! I had designed it for a class project a while back, and normally it was on display in my homeroom.

It was mounted on wheels, but was not terribly fast. When I saw it, I pulled on a jacket, and went outside to follow it.

I calculated its course, based on the direction I saw it moving. Soon, the robot came into view. I then slowed down, and stayed about 20 feet behind it.

I shoved the hood of my jacket back; I was soaked anyway. Some of the rain beaded up on my glasses, making it harder to see, but I was determined.

I followed it down the sidewalk of a road. I was well outside of school campus by now, and I hoped that I didn't get caught.

Soon the robot veered off the road, and down a disused bridge to the old abandoned Factory. Nobody knew the purpose of that old building, but because of the radiation that had been detected there, the city had voted not to demolish it.

I followed it into the Factory, grateful for the chance to dry off. My robot veered off to the left, but I stopped to shake the water out of my hair.

On the wall beside me, there was a piece of shiny metal. I looked into it, and saw myself. I was 14 years old, and stood a staggering 5 feet and 11 ½ inches. The rest of my body didn't match my height in width. I was your standard geek. I stank at almost anything athletic, but was quite a good student.

I had a mop of light brown hair and green eyes. And at this moment, water was dripping from my hair, _into _my eyes. I wore a bright orange sweatshirt and a white undershirt, which contrasted with my black pants.

After I had dried off a bit, I set off in the direction that my robot had gone. I travelled a distance, and then came to a chamber with a large computer in it. The metal walls had a bluish color to them. The ceiling of this room was a least a dozen feet high, but the computer was mounted to ceiling, with a heap of wires connecting it to who knows what.

There was a chair to sit in (Presumably for using the computer), but since I did not see my robot, I wasted no more time in that room. I saw only two exits.

There was what looked like an elevator on the far wall, but the activator panel was far too high for my robot to reach, so I knew that it hadn't gone that way.

I chose the other exit. A set of rungs on the wall went down a floor. In this new room, I looked around. Three tall cabins commanded the center of the room. It was dark in here. I didn't see my robot here either, so I went down one more floor.

It was here that I found my robot. It seemed to be messing with a type of SuperComputer in the middle of the room. It turned its head to look at me, and froze.

In its eyes, there was a strange symbol. It was a tri-circular design with four spokes extending from the outermost circle. Three spokes were on the top, and single one hung from the bottom.

Seeing those eyes froze me in fear. The robot and I stared at each other for a long while. Nothing happened. Or so it seemed...

* * *

><p>"XANA!" ANAX called. "This could be the chance we have been waiting for! If we can trick this boy into turning on <em>all <em>of the power, we can dispose of him easily, and conserve energy at the same time!" A few seconds of silence passed as XANA processed this data.

"Do what you must, ANAX. I leave it to your judgment. We are so weak, and this boy could make us so strong. When he was fulfilled his purpose, we shall dispose of him!"

ANAX removed his essence from the robot. He collapsed into the partially powered up SuperComputer, nearly devoid of energy after taking control of something without a Tower.

* * *

><p>At this point, I saw a cloud of dark blue smoke-like gas erupt from my robot. I staggered backwards at the sight. The smoke coiled high around the ceiling before diving into the SuperComputer.<p>

Struck by a wondering that I had never felt before, I reached to turn the computer on. There was a simple lever with that same symbol on it, but upside down. I believe the phrase "Curiosity killed the cat" best describes this moment.

As soon as I powered up the computer, a shockwave of blue energy blasted me back. The field receded quickly, so I instinctively reached out to turn the computer off. Naturally, when I pulled the switch, nothing happened. Just my luck.

I went back up to the room with the interface to see if I could get some data on turning the SuperComputer off. I found almost nothing. By now, I was too spooked to notice much. I saw a window about something called Lyoko. A virtual world of sorts.

_OK, _I told myself. _I'm dreaming. I'm going to go back home, and go to bed. When I wake up, I'll know that this didn't happen._

I did just that. There was only one snag. The next morning when I woke up, I was still sure that it had indeed happened. Later, I'd tell my friends about it, and see what they think...

* * *

><p>"You're crazy!" Tennent burst out. He crossed his arms over his chest, covering the bright yellow lightning bolt on his otherwise white shirt. The lightning bolt matched his blindingly blond hair which was further accentuated by a conspicuous white streak that ran up the middle spike. And that didn't end his questionable attire- one pant leg was gold, while the other was stark-white. Needless to say, yellow and white were his favorite colors.<p>

"You're getting delusional on us Sammy!" Sean agreed. Sean was very different from Tennent. He looked at things from a more serious point of view while Tennent usually joked around. He had sandy brown hair that he never let grow past a very specific length. His casual tan jacket and muted green pants did little to draw attention to his personal style.

"No, seriously!" I protested. "Come with me to the Factory, and you'll see!"

After some persuasion, they obliged.

We arrived at the Factory minutes later. My friends stood in silence as we travelled down the elevator. There was no comment on finding a working elevator. Soon, we stepped into the Computer Lab.

"See! See!" I said motioning to the computer. I proceeded to turn the machine on. The interface booted up.

"Ha! I told you!" I said jumping up and down.

They shrugged.

"Well... Don't we want to check it out? We could figure out what happened to my robot. I'll rest easier if I know what happened." Little did I know that I wouldn't rest easy for many months to come.

I did some searching on the computer. I wasn't as scared as I was last time. I started up a program, to see what it would do.

"I'm going to Lyoko," I announced. "If you two are too chicken to come as well, that's fine with me." I knew that that line would get them to follow me to the cabins called "Scanners".

Tennent stared at the tube. "What do we do?" He asked. "Step inside," I told him. "Then we wait, and see what happens."

Sean was skeptical. "Has this been tested on Humans?" He inquired.

"Well... I'm almost positive." I had found some previous data on the computer that indicated it had been used at one time. My answer did little to assure Sean.

Nonetheless, I stepped into the Scanner. "See you on the flip side!" I said.

The doors closed and I rose into the air strangely. A bright white light flashed, and I lapsed into unconsciousness.

I suddenly regained self-awareness, and realized that I was falling. Too late of course. I landed smack on my face with a big _**THUD. **_I looked up to see that Sean and Tennent had made the same blunder.

I hauled myself to my feet and looked around. Everything was virtual! The ground was a bright green color, and the path was very narrow. Trees went up from all around me, but very few grew from the platform itself.

I looked over at Sean and Tennent, speechless. Suddenly all three of us gaped at each other.

Sean was dressed in black armor, laced with threads of white. He had a belt across him with tiny knives, a short sword on his back and some other weapon in a holster on his hip. Tall boots came up from his toes almost all the way to his knees.

Tennent was a like a giant black cat. His armor was similar to Sean's, but it was smoother, more like spandex. A long tail waved behind him, and I noticed that his hands and feet had been replaced with something that resembled a cat's paws. No weapons were apparent, unless you counted the short claws on the end of his fingers.

I looked down at myself and saw black bands arcing across my orange-clad arms and legs. Near my elbows, the strips ended on my arms and what appeared to be metal gauntlets were present there. When I saw my striped tail, I began to suspect that my appearance was rather tiger-like with some techno elements. Much the same as with Tennent, my outfit was similar to spandex.

I did not find any weapons, save the claws that extended from each finger. My glasses had transferred over in the form of something that looked like safety glasses.

When I found my voice, I asked, "What's going on here?"

All I got in return was a shrug.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: <strong>

**You should notice as the story progresses, I get a lot better at writing. I started this a while back, but my more recent works are much better. Don't forget to write me a review, please!**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

My friends and I soon recovered from our shock. Several logical questions popped into my head.

"I wonder why Sean has weapons, and neither of us have any..." I said. "It's not like there is any fighting to be done here..."

"I say we explore!" Tennent said. "You never know what we might find!"

With that said, we set off in a random direction. As we ambled, I asked to see the holstered object in Sean's belt. He obliged, and I examined it, to find what looked like an activator button. With some hesitation, I pressed the button. _*Fvooooom!* _an energy beam erupted from it, and then collapsed, so that it trailed on the ground. I didn't get it.

Sean did though. "COOL! A laser whip!" he exclaimed. "Lemme see that!" He said, grabbing it from me. He proceeded to dance around with it acting like he knew what he was doing.

"It's a good thing we _don't _have anything to fight; otherwise we'd be in trouble!" I said laughing. At that, he put away his weapon with a frown.

Soon we came upon a Tower of sorts. A light blue fog surrounded it. This made us curious. "What is it?" I asked, knowing that I would not get an answer.

"I don't see what its purpose is." Sean announced. "It probably can't help us, so we should probably move on."

I was intrigued. I placed my hands on the surface, and gave an experimental shove. To my surprise, I fell face first into the tower!

I quickly exited, and called my buddies back over. I showed them what I had found.

We walked into the Tower, and stood on the platform. On it was the same logo that had appeared in my robot's eyes. Now I _knew _something suspicious was happening.

"Look at the ground!" I cried. "It's the same symbol that was on my robot! I told you!" I didn't get the reaction that I was hoping for. Sean just shrugged. "So you were right. You're right most of the time. Big deal."

"You see all this data on the walls?" I asked. "I know there must be some way to access it! I bet it can help us learn more."

I wandered about the platform for a few seconds, suddenly, when I hit the exact center, I started rising into the air!

"Aaaggghh!" I yelled. My friends echoed me. Soon I was dropped off, at a higher point in the tower. Here, an info screen greeted me.

I touched it, and the interface started up. When I saw what was on it, I breathed, "Cool!"

I had found some sort of program that I could use to fetch more data from the interface back at the Factory. Now that I had transferred that program, I should be able to get more info. I was sure that our trip to Lyoko had been successful. Once this mystery was solved, we could turn of the SuperComputer, and I'd sleep better. Naturally, there would be no such luck.

I got down on my knees and leaned over the edge of the platform that I was on. I could see Sean and Tennent standing below.

"Hey guys! You won't believe what I found!" I yelled at them. "What?" Tennent yelled back. "

"I'll tell you later, first I have to get down from here!"

A few seconds passed. "Try jumping," Sean offered. "If this is all virtual, you can't get hurt right?"

I figured that I had nothing to lose. There was no other way down it appeared, so I leaped.

Much to my surprise, I jumped far longer than I intended to. I had no idea that I could even jump as far as I did. I completely missed the platform Sean and Tennent were standing on. I plummeted into the blackness. I closed my eyes in fear.

Soon, I became aware that I was no longer moving. Then I felt a small impact. I had just landed on my face for the third time. Ugh.

I opened my eyes. It looked like I was still in the Tower! When I didn't see Sean or Tennent, I deduced that I must be in another Tower. I had no clue what to do at this point.

Luckily, I was saved by my friends. I saw them appear at the top of the Tower and glide down toward me.

"Well that was wacky!" I said.

"Phew!" Tennent breathed. "I thought we had lost you!"

"Nope! I'm still here!" I replied, unnecessarily.

Soon we decided to exit the Tower. We needed a way to get back to the Factory, so I could look up my info.

When we walked out of the Tower, instead of seeing a Forest like I expected, I saw a Desert!

"What just happened?" Sean asked.

"Maybe there is more than one Sector of Lyoko," I said. "Maybe falling through Towers like that changes what Sector you're in."

We started walking again. We encountered a strange creature. It looked like a cube on legs, with the weird logo emblazoned on each face of the cube. For an unknown reason, the symbol was upside down.

It moved toward us quite lethargically. _Maybe it's friendly,_ I thought.

With a surge of strength, it fired red and blue beams at us, knocking us backward, and encasing Tennent in ice.

Then the chicken part of me took over. I ran away, but I was shot in the back, and the world went black.

* * *

><p>When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the Factory. In just a few more seconds, the other tubes opened up, and Tennent and Sean tumbled out. We exchanged confused looks.<p>

I limped over to the elevator, and when my friends had made it as well, I hit the button to bring us up the Lab.

"Okay guys, I think I found a way to get more info out of this computer. Let me give it a shot."

I walked over to the chair, and sat down. I located the program that I had transferred, and ran it.

Soon, the data base was open to me. Well, part of it anyway. We'd suffer for that later.

I scanned the lines of text. I read aloud to my friends.

"Warning! Do not activate the SuperComputer! It is highly dangerous!" That was the first line. I continued reading.

"A very powerful virus called XANA had infected the Computer at one point. XANA has been destroyed, but I can't be sure if he's gone forever."

"I think we should go shut the SuperComputer thingy down," Tennent said in a shaky voice. "I already tried to shut it down," I told him. "It's bugged up or something and it won't work."

I opened another file. It seemed as if XANA was not dead. I was getting readings from 2 running programs. One was XANA, and the other was called ANAX. It was weird. I don't know how XANA survived his first defeat.

My friends and I stayed in the Factory for a long while, and when we were finished, we had learned a lot about Lyoko, XANA, and ANAX.

"This is way too big for us to handle!" Sean said. "We've got to go to the authorities and get the SuperComputer destroyed!"

"Sean, you don't understand. No one can to anything about it. The SuperComputer has a Uranium battery in it that has fused to the computer. If we get people to bring a battering ram in here to destroy it, the explosion would destroy everything for miles! What's more is the legal side of it. We could have endangerment charges brought on to us! We could be jailed for Pete's sake!"

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Sean asked.

"We fight XANA," Tennent answered. "He was defeated once, we can do it again!"

I soon nodded. "XANA is still very weak from his last defeat. I can see it from the activity logs on the computer. If we act quickly, we can destroy him while he's still weak."

We vowed to tell no one about our secret.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

That night, I dreamed. I dreamed of what life would be like if XANA took over the planet.

I saw in a store, selling only basic necessities, people paying with coins that had a XANA eye on it. Every person had a XANA eye scorched onto their forehead.

As I watched the scene unfold, a group of rebels attacked a patrol of robots, and they were mercilessly eliminated. The cold efficiency of those robots still shakes me up when I think about it.

Soon, I awoke from the nightmare. I was breathing hard. I looked over at the clock, and saw that I only had an hour before my alarm would go off, telling me that I was time to get up and face the day.

After school was over, I brought my laptop over to the Factory. I plugged it into one of the inputs on the interface. After some looking around, and started the process I had come to do.

I backed up my data, and wiped the hard drive of my laptop. I installed the new BIOS, and connected the two computers wirelessly. Then I restored my data. This way, I could scan for activated Towers from my laptop. My laptop would now function better for everything, since the BIOS of the SuperComputer is highly advanced.

Then I did a little searching on the memory banks. I found the avatars of the original Lyoko Warriors, Ulrich, Yumi, Aelita, Odd, and William. It was hard to believe that my grandfather had been in the same position I was in only 50 or so years ago.

I thought about asking him for help, but he had moved out of the area, and I never bothered to ask for a phone number. Besides, Grandpa was so old by this point; there was probably nothing he could do. Most of the programs he had written had been deleted by XANA. I doubted that Jeremy could reprogram them.

I checked out my Lyoko avatar, as well as Tennent's and Sean's. Sean's weapons have already been listed, but I discovered that he had a special Lyoko Power. Temporary invisibility. I don't know how long he could sustain it though.

I checked out Tennent's next. He had the same skills of Odd. He could shoot Laser Arrows, and he had a low power energy shield which could block monsters' attacks. His Lyoko Power was climbing. He could climb up almost any surface, no matter how steep or smooth it was.

I opened my file. I found that I had some type of energy claws that came out of the back of my hands at will. There were three 1 ½ foot long blades that came out of each hand. As a secondary weapon, I had two rockets that I could shoot from the metal gauntlet I had seen on my forearm. I tried to override the function that only let me have two, but I could do nothing. My Lyoko Power was Jumping. I could jump about 20 times higher that I could on earth. That explained my mis-jump in the Tower.

I then did a little programming. I transferred a Lyoko Interface onto my left forearm. This way, even while we were on Lyoko trying to deactivate a Tower, I could look at the radar, and do other things, that I'm sure we would need later.

For the rest of the day, I worked at figuring out the Interface. It didn't come with a help file, so it was slow going. By the end of the day though, I felt a lot more confident with the controls.

* * *

><p>Days passed. No activated Towers. I had been thinking of a way to destroy XANA, but nothing came to mind. He seemed to have no source. There was nothing I could do to weaken him further. I had no idea where he drew power from.<p>

One day, in the middle of Science class, my laptop beeped at me. It was the set sound that meant there was an activated Tower!

There was only a few minutes left in the class, so I decided that it could wait. Afterward, I whispered to Sean and Tennent that we needed to deactivate a Tower. They ran off. I was about the follow them, when someone caught my arm. It was Alyssa Schaeffer.

The most striking thing about her was the two streaks of pink in her light-chocolate colored hair that flowed on either side. She made it clear that she liked pink by wearing a pink and white jacket with a dark pink skirt and the same colored boots.

"Hey!" She said. "Where are you going in such a hurry?" She inquired, her brown eyes glaring at me. "Today was the day you promised me help with my math, remember?"

_Rats! _I thought. I really regretted that promise now.

I had no excuse, and Sean and Tennent wouldn't be able to get to Lyoko without me. "Look Alyssa, I'm sorry. I can't do that right now."

"Why not?" She asked.

"Well... um..." I couldn't think up of anything to say. I was really not good at coming up with excuses. The rest of the students had cleared the area by now.

I figured I had nothing to lose. I told her about Lyoko. I knew that Alyssa didn't know enough about legal issues to see the magnitude of it. When I was finished, she looked at me all wide eyed. "You're serious? A virtual world? I've got to see this!" Sighing, I led her to the factory.

When we got there, I was surprised to see that I was not the only one who had picked up a friend.

It turns out that Sean and Tennent had tried to take a short-cut through the gym, and ran into another student, Brittany Stern. They too had no choice but to explain.

I looked her over. I was aware of her existence, of course, as we were in the same class, but I had not associated much with her. She had light blond hair (though not as bright as Tennent's) and sparkling blue eyes. Her fashion sense was new to me; she wore about four layers of clothing, all different shades of purple: A sleeveless top, a long sleeved shirt, a skirt, and bell-bottom slacks.

When they were through explaining, I nodded. "What are we waiting for?" I asked.

When we got to the Lab both of our new friends were looking around curiously.

"Tennent, do you mind staying on Earth? We need someone here to monitor the attack."

"Alright," He agreed.

I got into my chair and configured the transfers. The activated Tower was in the Ice Sector. We had never been there before.

Soon, Sean and I dropped down onto Lyoko. I configured the girls' transfer via the LI (Lyoko Interface). Soon they too dropped down onto Lyoko.

Alyssa appeared to be weaponless, just like Tennent and I, but her form was more feminine. She wore a dark-ish pink jumpsuit that was accented with a lighter shade at the shoulders, abdomen, and lower legs. A small, wavy, cape was attached at the back of her neck, and it was the lightest pink of all her apparel. The bright pink streaks in her hair were even more evident on Lyoko.

Brittany wore a jumpsuit similar to Alyssa's, except that it was a purple shade. She had no cape, and lines of shiny silver streaked across her waist, sides, and collar. She quickly discovered that two purple fans hung from her back by a mysterious force. She grabbed them and they were easily pulled away. She began to examine the silvery patterns in their design.

I had virtualized us as close to the tower as I could.

I pointed as I said, "There's the Tower. See how it's dark blue? That means it's activated. I don't know what ANAX and XANA plan on doing with it, but if we're lucky, we can thwart the attack before it starts."

Coming up beside me, Sean said, "It looks like we're going to have to fight for it!" He motioned to three Bloks coming our way.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

As quick as I could, I filled Sean in about his weapons. When I had finished, he ran forward to engage the monsters. He spun his sword in a fancy way, and suddenly caught it delicately between three fingers. He gave a precise flip, and the sword went flying high into the air. Just as it fell to his hand, a Block shot it, sending it zipping straight at me.

Maybe it was some type of Lyoko reflex, but I reacted quicker than I thought possible. I flew into the air to dodge the blade. As I began to fall, I saw an opportunity. I directed my fall toward the top of a Block, but I miscalculated. My toes skimmed the top, putting me into another face plant. By now, I was sure that I could be crowned the King of Lyoko face plants.

As I jumped up, a Block shot me in the back, knocking me to the ground again. Sean lashed out his whip and destroyed the Block that had hit me.

"Wow! This is pretty easy!" He exclaimed. "Those targets are nice and big!" As he said that, he got hit by the remaining two Blocks. From the LI, I saw that he had just lost 20 Life Points. I warned him of this.

With a mental command, I slid my claws out. I charged a Block, and thanks to my amazing forethought, I ran right into a blue laser. It froze me solid for about 2 seconds. Then a shock came that blacked me out.

* * *

><p>I awoke in one of the Scanners. Boy, those blue lasers were powerful!<p>

As I ran up to the Lab, I hoped my friends would make it through.

Tennent was in the chair, watching the screen. "Any signs of a XANA attack?" I asked him. He pointed at the video screens. "None of the cameras pick up anything suspicious."

This confused me a little. At this point, I didn't realize how weak XANA was. The only point of this activated Tower was to channel some energy into him. I didn't know this at the time of course.

I asked Tennent if I could man the computer, and he let me of course.

I looked at the radar. Brittany and Alyssa were both under 20 Life Points. I restrained from warning them, as I hadn't told them everything about how Lyoko worked. It would creep them out hearing my voice randomly coming from the void. That might be the distraction that cost them the rest of their Life Points.

I watched as Sean used his whip to knock down a Block. It was then easy for Brittany to move in and destroy it. We were all noobs on Lyoko, so we didn't stand much of a chance right now. We'd really have to work out a way to practice.

It was hard to make out the rest of the fight just from radar, but in the end, Alyssa was the only survivor. This is when I spoke into the microphone that was linked to Lyoko.

"Alyssa?" I said. On the screen, I saw her jump. "Is that you, Sammy?"

"Yes it is," I replied. "I'm at the big computer. From here I can communicate with you on Lyoko."

"Okay..." was the cautious response.

I then directed her to the Tower, and instructed her on deactivating it. I had read that anyone who held the Keys to Lyoko could deactivate Towers. They were dispersed now, so I hoped that rule no longer applied.

I told Alyssa that if she just pressed her hand on the Tower's interface with the proper mental command of "Code Lyoko" the Tower would shut down.

After she did this, I saw the warning signal disappear on my screen. There was no presence of XANA or ANAX anymore.

I then ran a program that I had dug up. It was called "Materialization". When I was sure it had succeeded, I went down to the Scanner room with Tennent.

All my friends were down there. A little confused, but safe at least.

* * *

><p>Afterwards, Alyssa and Brittany asked us loads of questions. We answered them as best as we could.<p>

Most of these questions are the normal questions that would be expected after a trip to Lyoko. One of them stuck out though.

"Just before I went into the Tower," Alyssa had said. "I saw this weird energy ball flying around. What was it?"

This baffled me. I told her that I didn't know. This would have to be the next thing we researched.

We decided that we would go to Lyoko again after School the next day.

* * *

><p>So after school was finished, we all headed over to the Factory. I decided that the Desert Sector would be best to go to. It had wide open platforms so it would be easier to search for evidence.<p>

I virtualized Sean, Tennent, and Brittany first. Then I set up a delayed virtualization for me and Alyssa.

A few seconds later, I dropped down onto the digital sand. I had picked a good spot it looked like. There wasn't a drop off for a good 50 feet in any direction.

"Okay Alyssa," I said. "We should probably wait for one of those energy balls to come around. If we get lucky, we'll see one.

Tennent and Sean went off to practice with their weapons. Tennent picked random rocks to shoot at, to hone his aiming skills, while Sean swung his whip around, trying to work out techniques.

I sat down on the ground and called Alyssa and Brittany over to me. On the LI, I opened a holographic interface. A projection sprang up from my wrist, but stayed in place even when I moved my arms. I placed my hands on the holo-keyboard and began to type, opening some files for Alyssa and Brittany.

Brittany had those throwing fans. She could control them to a small extent even while they were in the air. To bolster this, her Lyoko Power was Telekinesis. After I had informed her, she also joined Sean and Tennent in practice.

I opened the file for Alyssa's avatar. She leaned in with interest. We still didn't know what her weapons were.

As it turned out, she could form pink energy fields in her hands. They could be combined to form a shield of sorts, and she could also charge up a huge blast of the energy. I assumed that that last power would take up a lot of energy.

Her Lyoko Power was something called "Creativity". She could form landscape on Lyoko! This would definitely help us out.

"Why don't you practice using your Lyoko Power?" I suggested.

"Um... How?" She asked.

"On Lyoko, everything is mental," I explained. "I just think of yourself doing it, and it happens. At least that's how it is with my claws," I said as I brought them out.

She still looked a little confused. "Just try it," I said. She nodded.

I watched as she held out her hand and closed her eyes. A small pink sphere formed in the palm of her hand as the outline of a rock began to form.

Soon, the digital imprint was completely in place, and it took on color. Alyssa opened her eyes.

"Woah!" She exclaimed. "Did I make that?"

I nodded at her. It looked like we were on our way to becoming Lyoko Warriors.

* * *

><p>I tried to practice with the others, but it really didn't work out. My claws were fairly easy to use, and it didn't take me long to figure out my leaping power. I only had 2 rockets, so I didn't want to waste them on target practice, just in case I might need them.<p>

I picked out different rocks to try to jump and land on. Soon, I was able to more or less direct myself.

Eventually, Sean cried out, "Everybody! Look!" We all looked up at the sky, expecting to see one of the energy spheres. I saw it buzzing randomly about, flitting from rock to rock.

Using the LI, I launched an analysis. I announced this to my friends.

Most of the data I got, I couldn't make out. I saw the amount of memory the program inside the sphere had though. A whole 200 Gigabytes! Something that big was worth checking out.

I told my friends about this.

"Let's see if we can grab it," Brittany said. "Then maybe we can get that data."

For the next minute we all hoped around like idiots. If anyone was watching this scene, it would appear quite comical.

Eventually, the orb swooped low, and Sean grabbed it out of the air. He held it tightly in his hands.

"Now what?" He asked.

"I think I know what to do," I said.

I walked over to him, and placed the LI as close as I could to the orb. Soon, a message popped up and told me that a file was being downloaded. The orb got smaller as the progress bar on my screen got closer and closer to 100%. Soon, there was no more orb, and the data was successfully downloaded.

* * *

><p>A few minutes later, back at the Factory, we reviewed the data. I opened the file, and saw what was in it. A key to Lyoko! It was a highly complex file. I couldn't edit it or anything. From what I could decipher, I figured that there were 10 keys. We had just gotten one.<p>

But, wait! I saw two more additional files. I opened them too. These were replicas of the key we had just found. That was good, because it meant that we wouldn't have to get every single orb on Lyoko, for there were several of the same keys. Now that Aelita had been gone from Lyoko so long, the key system was easier.

I then realized that my friends were completely in the dark. I shared with them what I had found.

"That's great!" Tennent said. "We're one step closer that means!" He added.

Boy. If I had known how many steps there would be, I wouldn't have been as happy as I was that day.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

In the morning, I called a meeting in my dorm. When everyone had arrived, I addressed my friends from my computer chair. Sean and Tennent sat on the bed, while Alyssa and Brittany sat on the other side of the room.

"I think that we need a secret code," I said after all the formalities had been taken care of. "I discovered that the original Lyoko Warriors used a system of text messages. I have Jeremy's program that he used to hack the cell phones, and I think it would work."

Tennent raised a hand. "Yes?" I asked him. "Why do you need to hack the phones? We can send texts normally right?"

"Well," I answered. "With this program I can inject into the phones, we can set a short-cut key, which will automatically send a text message that says 'SOS XANA' to all of our phones with one click. Also, the text will be displayed as the phones' wallpaper, so we don't even need to open the text app. That way, we can reduce the amount of speed it takes to respond to XANA's attacks."

They handed me their phones.

I decided to keep the message as "SOS XANA" despite the fact that ANAX did most of the work, and XANA was pretty much dormant, for simplicity's sake. I also didn't have the guts yet to try and modify one of Jeremy's programs.

So I plugged up their phones, and injected the program into all of them.

"All you have to do," I explained, "Is press the asterisk key three times, and the phone will take care of the rest."

We sat and tested this new program for a few minutes, to make sure that everything was working.

After we did that, Alyssa spoke up and said, "I think a vote is in order." For a while, I didn't know what she meant.

She clarified. "Do we go back to Lyoko today and hunt for Info Orbs; or do we just take today off?"

"Info Orbs?" Sean asked.

"My new name for the energy balls," She explained.

The name stuck.

"So," She finished. "I say by show of hands, we vote on whether or not we return to Lyoko today."

The vote was unanimous.

* * *

><p>"Transfer, Tennent! Transfer, Sean!" I announced, as I launched the procedure. "Scanner, Tennent! Scanner, Sean! ...Virtualization!" I hit the enter key.<p>

"Okay girls, you ready?" I asked to Brittany and Alyssa who were standing behind me. They nodded.

I set up the delayed virtualization process. As I went down to the Scanners, I thought some. There were so many programs on the SuperComputer that I couldn't use, or even view. I only knew that they were there. They had a strange encryption, that if it was hacked, then the program probably wouldn't work. It was as if Jeremy had encoded everything precisely, so that no one could use it, unless you broke the code. I was worried that we might never figure the codes out, and then we'd be in deep, deep trouble. If Jeremy needed them to kill XANA once, we would definitely need them to destroy ANAX and XANA together.

I put my worries aside. For now, it was time to hunt for another key to Lyoko.

I dropped down into the Mountain Sector. Why had I chosen the Mountain Sector? 1) I had never seen it before, and 2) I thought that we might not find another Info Orb in the Desert. Of course, that was a wrong assumption.

Tennent saluted us as we stood up. "So... What now?" he asked.

"Now that we have found an Info Orb, I can locate others by tracing the digital signature... I think."

"What do you mean: I think?" Brittany asked incredulously.

"Well, what I mean is that I'm not sure if I can trace the signature accurately enough to help us."

"Ah." Came the response.

I enlarged the scale on the radar, to find an Orb. Soon one was located south-south west of our current position. I pointed us in the proper direction, and we set off.

Soon, we saw the light from the Orb. I groaned. It was high on the peak of a spire of rock. It sat motionless. Unless I could program wings, we could never get up there.

We stopped a few feet away from the spire. After a pause, Sean said, "I nominate Team Cat-boy for this mission!" I was confused.

"Who?" I asked.

"You and Tennent!" He said laughing. "You're Team Cat-boy!"

I notice that Alyssa and Brittany were beginning to laugh as well.

My tail began to twitch in anger. This only made me madder, that I had a tail to twitch. I could see that Tennent was having similar thoughts.

Moving as one, we slunk down into a stalking position, almost without a thought. As we advanced on Sean, our tail began to swing in unison.

When Sean saw us stalking toward him, he collapsed onto the ground with laughter. Soon Brittany followed him, and although Alyssa was doing her best to hold it in, she also followed.

I stood up.

"Well, it looks like the only way we're going to live this down is to get that Info Orb, Tennent," I said. "With our Lyoko Powers combined, maybe we can do it."

"I sure hope so, Sammy," he grunted. "For both our sakes..." he added.

Tennent launched himself up the spire. Using his Lyoko Power, he scaled the wall. I leaped up as high as I could. It only got me about halfway up the spire.

I brought out my claws, and dug them into the surface of the rock. To my dismay, I slid down a good 4 or 5 feet before coming to a halt.

I tried my best not to look down, but I couldn't resist the urge. My vision went blurry as I stared at Sean, Alyssa, and Brittany below me.

I shook my head, and tried to continue. I shoved up, but I didn't get anywhere. Then I saw why. I had no horizontal surface to leap from. On this vertical surface, I could only jump away from it. I scrabbled around for a little bit to no avail.

By this point, Tennent had caught up to me. "What now?" he asked. I was getting ready to just ask him to climb the rest of the way up, when something hit me.

"How about you climb right underneath me," I said. "Like this?" He asked as he climbed directly beneath me. "Yep," I told him.

"Now turn around," I said. "Huh? If I turn around, I won't be able to hold onto the wall!" He exclaimed.

"Sorry," I clarified. "Rotate yourself so that your feet are nearly touching my feet."

He did so.

"Now hold on tight!" I yelled as I pulled out my claws. I dropped onto his feet, and a half second later, I launched myself upward, using the heels of Tennent's feet for a base.

I smiled in victory as the Info Orb came within arm's reach. Just as I swiped at it, it careened off the edge of the spire down in Sean's direction.

In my surprise, I bounced off the top of the rock, and fell down onto Tennent, who lost his grip, and we both plummeted down 20 or so feet to what I thought would be our demise.

I was wrong. The fall cost us both 20 Life Points, but we were otherwise unharmed.

Naturally, Sean completely missed the Info Orb, even as it swung within 2 inches of his nose.

He chased it around for a little bit, but he soon gave up the chase.

"It looks like Team Cat-boy has suffered a blunder!" Sean scoffed.

Tennent had a ready retort. "Well look who's talkin' Mr. I-can't- catch-an-Info-Orb-that's-right-in-front-of-my-face!"

Sean stuttered.

"We can still chase the Info Orb right?" Alyssa said. "Let's go," She ran off.

We turned the corner that the Info Orb had. Only to run face to face with some Bloks!

We turned around and ran the other way. Tennent and I only had 80 Life Points, but the other Lyoko Warriors had 100. Maybe we could fight them.

We turned around, and saw that the Bloks had surrounded the Info Orb. They had shot it down to the ground.

I watched in horror as a rip appeared in the "sky" of Lyoko. A dark blue spectral form descended upon the Orb, engulfing it.

Tennent shot a laser arrow at it, and then Sean threw a knife. We then attacked the creature as one.

I shot off both my rockets, and they impacted. Brittany and Alyssa attacked from the left, while Sean and Tennent attacked form the right.

My mistake was staying in the middle. The dark blue cloud extended an arm of sorts, and surrounded me in this blue fog. It closed in around me. There was nothing I could do.

When the fog blocked out my vision completely, I was devirtualized.

* * *

><p>I woke up in the Scanner Room. A few seconds later, my friends appeared.<p>

"That thing is invincible!" Brittany exclaimed.

"There was nothing we could do to hurt it!" Tennent added.

"What was it?" Alyssa asked.

I shook my head as I gave them my guess. "ANAX..." I whispered.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"What!" Tennent exclaimed.

"What else could it be?" I explained. This gave way to silence.

After a while, we headed up to the Lab. I decided to do some digging, and see what I could find. Sean stayed with me to watch, but Brittany, Tennent, and Alyssa went back to their dorms.

I started by looking at the input matrix that was left from our visit to Lyoko. With some difficulty, I could make out when the monsters had been destroyed, and when we had been devirtualized.

I could see the energy readings from our Lyoko Avatars, and the monsters, but there was another energy reading. It was very weak.

I studied some more. I gaped in shock as I recognized the digital signature. It was ANAX! I had no idea that he was so weak!

I informed Sean of my discovery. "If that's what he's like now," Sean said, "Then I wonder how powerful he is at full strength!"

"Yeah... I'm scared now." I told him.

Further digging provided only one more piece of valuable info. It seemed as if ANAX could only take a tangible form if he was about to grab an Info Orb. He didn't have enough power to sustain himself for long.

Now that we knew this, he would only descend if he could grab an Info Orb, because if he came just to devirtualize us, we would know that we just have to run as fast as we can, and in under a minute, he will dissipate. I was sure that this could work to our advantage.

* * *

><p>Two days later, all was quite. I was lounging on my bed studying for an upcoming chemistry test. Even though Tennent and Sean think that I don't have to study, I do.<p>

My laptop was in sleep mode. That was a mistake that I wouldn't make again. (Ok, I would make that mistake again, but from this point I would try harder to remember not to do that.)

Unbeknownst to me, ANAX had activated a Tower in the Forest Sector. He possessed a wolf in the park.

Sean was walking in the park at this time. He liked to do that because it helped him relax.

As he walked, he stopped to enjoy the sound of the birds chirping. He let out a contented sigh. The sun was just going down, but several rays still broke through the trees, warming him.

After a few more minutes, he decided to head back to Kadic.

About halfway back, he stopped. Something felt weird... Then he realized what it was. There was no noise. Zero.

Not a bird was chirping, or a squirrel chattering. Not even the wind was blowing through the branches of the trees. The last of the sun's light was fading, and Sean was getting the distinct feeling that he was being watched.

He took a few more cautious steps forward. Then, he heard a footstep. A _heavy _footstep.

He turned around.

He was now staring right into the eyes of a wolf the size of a lion!

The eye of ANAX was clearly visible where its pupil should have been.

Sean bolted. He ran off in a random direction, with the ANAX-fied wolf hot in pursuit. He was barely able to keep ahead of the beast.

After a minute, Sean's adrenaline cooled off. Common sense resumed. He knew that if the wolf wanted to, it could easily outrun him, and take him down.

He began to look around himself, to find a tree that he could climb. None had low hanging branches, so he kept running.

Soon, he came to a cliff of sorts. Without stopping, he began to climb upwards. Halfway up, he stopped to rest.

The wolf growled at him from far below.

Sean got out his cell phone and texted all of us the SOS. When I received the message, I jumped out of bed, and grabbed my laptop. Sure enough, as soon as I turned it on, a notice for an activated Tower popped up. "Yikes!" I exclaimed.

I headed to the Factory, knowing that the rest of my friends had gotten the text.

When I arrived, I saw that I was the last to get there.

"Where's Sean?" I asked. Tennent answered, "He said he was going for a walk in the park."

"If he's not back yet, he must be in trouble!" Alyssa said.

Brittany volunteered, "I'll see what I can do to help him."

She left, leaving me, Tennent, and Alyssa to fight XANA on Lyoko.

I looked at the screen, and saw which Sector the Tower was in. I then started up the Scanner process, and we left for Lyoko.

We dropped down in a triangle formation. I scanned the horizon, looking for the activated Tower.

"It looks like you entered the co-ordinates wrong," Alyssa told me after a moment. "Y'think?" I responded.

I opened the radar, and located the Tower. "Rats!" I said. "I accidentally entered the X co-ordinates in the Y, and vice versa."

"So how far do we have to go?" Tennent asked.

"About a mile..." I answered.

"Aw man..." He complained.

We started forward at a brisk pace. We encountered no trouble until the Tower was in sight.

I saw some monsters on my screen, which the LI identified as Krabs.

They were tall monsters, with big flat heads. It seemed that these were my type of monster. I could leap well above their, height, and the heads were large enough to provide some room for error.

I told Alyssa and Tennent of the danger and of my strategy to destroy the Krabs. Just as soon as they acknowledged me, laser fire erupted around us.

There were four Krabs. I picked a target and leaped up, and landed on the very edge of a Krab. I didn't have as high as an error margin as I had originally thought.

I steadied myself, and jumped to the center. As I brought my claws out to end the Krab's life, I heard a voice. "Get him off me!" It cried.

The Krab then bucked heavily, and I fell down, but grabbed the end of its head.

So there I was, dangling from a Krab's head, staring at Tennent and Alyssa in surprise. A shot from another Krab knocked me off and ended the awkward moment.

"Was that a Krab talking?" Alyssa asked.

"How should I know?" I replied. "I mean, I guess it was. It couldn't have been anything else."

The voice was much too grotesque to be a human. I never realized why I thought that monsters couldn't talk. I just assumed that they couldn't. _Live and learn, _I thought.

Alyssa fired an Energy Field at one of the Krabs, and it impacted on its leg, toppling it. Tennent then shot a Laser Arrow and the exposed XANA eye.

As he and Alyssa high-fived, something hit me. ANAX was our main adversary, and yet XANA's mark was on the monsters. How could this be?

The fight left me little time to wonder. I had to be constantly moving so that I didn't get hit.

My preoccupation proved to be my undoing. I leaped up into the air again, and stabbed down on a Krab, but I missed the target, so I had only weakened it.

Through a process that I can't describe, the three remaining Krabs focused all attention on me, and eliminated me from the battle.

By the time that I had materialized, gotten back to Lab, and oriented myself of the computer, Tennent and Alyssa had taken out a Krab each.

It wasn't long before the final Krab also fell. I was surprised that it had been that easy. It was _too _easy. I didn't like it.

* * *

><p>Brittany was running through the forest looking for Sean. She had gone in a pattern that would cover the most likely places first, but that hadn't worked.<p>

Sean was obviously deep into the woods.

After a while, she heard a growling noise. Intrigued, she followed the sound to a clearing in the woods. In the clearing there was a cliff, a wolf growling at the base of it, and to her surprise Sean was sitting at the highest point of the rock.

"Hey! Sean!" She exclaimed. He made a slashing motion across his throat, motioning for her to be silent. It was too late. The wolf had heard the noise, and it turned around to face Brittany.

"Run!" Sean called. "The wolf is ANAX-fied!" Upon hearing that, Brittany took off.

With a sigh, Sean climbed down the cliff to follow them.

The chase lasted for quite a while. Sean could only follow the sound of footsteps, which was often misleading.

Eventually, he caught up, as he was a faster runner than Brittany. As the wolf lunged to bite at Brittany's leg, Sean lunged for the wolf's legs, bringing it to the ground.

He wrestled with it, and soon began to realize that this was a fight he couldn't win. Within seconds, he had scratch marks running all throughout his body.

He broke free of the wolf's hold, and ran away. Brittany followed him, and soon overtook him. He was wounded, and could not run half as fast as he usually could.

Brittany went back to help him.

"No," Sean said. "Go ahead. I'll catch up..." Even though it didn't look like he would be able to catch up, Brittany obeyed.

Sean's pace got slower and slower, until the wolf had caught up to him again.

* * *

><p>On Lyoko, things couldn't be worse. Like I said. Too easy!<p>

Two monsters called MegaTanks had come out of nowhere, surrounding Tennent and Alyssa. I didn't know what they looked like, but I was able to bring up a bio of them.

They had an impenetrable shell that they could close up into anytime the wanted. They only time they were vulnerable to an attack was when _they _attacked, opening their shell.

Alyssa was devirtualized in one shot. My eyes flew wide in horror.

It was up to Tennent now.

* * *

><p>Tennent was left to face the new monsters alone when Alyssa was devirtualized. His mind was racing.<p>

One of the monsters made like a bowling ball, and barreled towards him. They say fear can make people jump 10 foot high fences. Tennent believed it.

He propelled himself to the top of the monster, and then he jumped off in the direction of the Tower.

He looked over his shoulder to see the monster fall off the edge of the platform.

Tennent sprinted as fast as he could to the Tower. He disregarded the other monster completely. It opened its shell to charge up a shot, but by the time it fired, Tennent had just entered the Tower.

We were safe, for now at least.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"It looks like you deactivated the Tower just in time guys!" Brittany said in a relieved tone over the phone. "Oh yeah!" Tennent cried. "Tennent to the rescue! Where would you be without me, guys?" he inquired.

I decided to let him celebrate. My pride would come second. "We'd all be missing Sean right now if it weren't for you." I told him.

"Speaking of Sean," I said into my microphone. "How is he?" I asked Brittany.

"It doesn't look good," she answered.

"Can he walk over here?" I questioned.

"Possibly..." She answered.

"Good. I need to see if this is necessary," I ended the connection.

"Need to see if what's necessary?" Alyssa asked. "You'll see." I told her. I typed up a code to bring up the program I had recently discovered. I didn't know exactly what it was, but it was clear that it had helped the original Lyoko Warriors.

Much later Sean arrived. Seeing the multiple open wounds all over him, and the amount of time it took for him to walk to the Factory, made up my mind. He would probably pull through, but with those kinds of injuries, people at Kadic would get far too suspicious.

I announced this too the Lyoko Warriors. "So what are you going to do about it?" Sean asked.

"I'm gonna try out a new program. It's called Return to the Past," I said. "So what does it do?" Tennent asked. I rolled my eyes at him. "Isn't it obvious?" I asked in return. "You don't mean..." He trailed off.

"C'mon, Sammy," Alyssa said. "You don't actually think that you can-"

"Return to the Past, now!" I said, typing the proper code. What happened next surprised even me.

I beam of blinding white light erupted from the hologram of Lyoko on the ground in the Factory. It expanded quickly and enveloped us, and my view lapsed into a white-out.

* * *

><p>The white cleared like a fog. I regained consciousness in the School Yard. Tennent was on my left, and Sean was on my right. Make that, Tennent was at the vending machine.<p>

He suddenly stopped, as if he had realized what had happened. He turned around. "Huh?" he asked. "What just happened?" I sighed.

"What part of Return to the Past do you not understand?" I asked playfully. Sean wore an equally confused look.

"You don't believe me do you?" I asked. I didn't expect an answer, and I didn't get one. I pointed at my watch, and showed him the date. It was 4:00 the previous day. Actually, it was 4:00 today.

"How does that work?" Sean asked.

I shrugged. "I have a theory, but it's not much of one."

"Well let's hear it," Tennent told me.

"First let me state that I only decoded the actual program. There were some notes that went with it, which I haven't been able to decode."

They nodded so I continued. "The bright like that was emitted had a strange frequency. My guess is that it travelled at the speed of light into a satellite in space. As it was being beamed back to earth, the frequency changed, utilizing the time dilatation that occurs at the speed of light, and projected the light over the whole planet, reversing the Space-Time Continuum to a small degree. About twelve hours." I finished.

After a few seconds of silence, Sean asked, "Can that be explained in English?" I opened my mouth, but was interrupted by a rather unpleasant surprise.

"Oh Sean, dear!" He groaned.

It was Rachel Sanders. She was the daughter of the Superintendent of our school. Her father also happened to be the Superintendent of every other school in the area. Pretty powerful dude.

At first glance, Rachel was very beautiful. Most guys in the school had flipped over her for this fact. Once you got to know her, you found that her personality was awful. She was rude, controlling, demanding, and very uppity. Not to mention she was a leach, and totally brain-dead.

She had light brown curly hair that fell half way down her back. Her eyes were a bright blue. At this moment, she was wearing a light pink jacket and skirt. As she walked toward us, she waved to Sean.

She pushed me aside as she walked up close to Sean. "Hey, Sweetheart!" she said. Sean put his face in his hands. "When are you going to realize that I'm the perfect girl for you?" She asked.

"Rachel," Sean answered. "Have I not answered that question a thousand times?" She gasped. Before she could say anything, Sean continued, "Why don't you go hang out with Julian and Phillip. They're always eager to cater to your every want!"

"Humph!" She stalked off.

Tennent walked up beside Sean. "Every time I see that girl, the more I get the feeling that she's gonna cause a lot of trouble for us," he said.

We walked off in the direction of the dorms in search of Alyssa and Brittany. When we had found them, we filled them in.

* * *

><p>The next day at lunch, Rachel waved for Sean to come sit with her. Naturally, Julian Poliakoff and Philip Pichon were with her. Philip was very short, with shaggy black hair, and big glasses. He wore a green sweater and jeans.<p>

Julian was very lanky with orange hair. He wore a black undershirt, with a red jacket over it. He had on brown cargo pants.

Sean ignored Rachel's offer entirely. We ate lunch without further disturbance.

After lunch was over, I asked my friends in a hushed tone, "You guys want to go to Lyoko to search for an Info Orb?" They nodded discretely.

We had chemistry class with Mrs. Morgan and math class with Mr. Lester. After that was over, our last period was study hall. I used this opportunity to get my homework done, so that way I wouldn't have to worry about it later, and we could spend as long as necessary on Lyoko.

I wish that I had paid more attention to my surrounding when we snuck off to the park to get to the Factory.

* * *

><p>We ran through the forest, and quickly arrived at the manhole. Using the Lab's mainframe computer, I had mapped out several possible routes to the Factory. This would help us, as we would not be able to use the same path every time.<p>

Tennent went down the manhole first. He was followed by Brittany, Sean, Alyssa, and finally me. As I closed the cover, I looked around quickly to see if we had been followed. I didn't look good enough, for if I had, I would have seen Rachel's head poking out from behind a tree.

We raced through the sewers on foot. _There has to be better way, _I thought. By the time I reached the Lab, I was breathing hard. I was not the most athletic guy around.

"Get to the Scanners," I wheezed.

"Hang on," Sean said. "Should we leave a couple of us behind as back-up? That way if ANAX comes upon us again, we could surprise him by having different people to Lyoko after we are devirtualized. Then we could go back to Lyoko."

I thought about it. It just might work. ANAX might think that whoever we leave behind didn't come with us, and it just might throw him off enough to give us the advantage we needed. "I concur," I told him.

We decided that Alyssa and Tennent would stay behind.

_This is a good plan, _I told myself. _Besides, if we get devirtualized, we can just revirtualize and keep going. Right?_


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

I set up the transfers, and then we went to Lyoko. I had picked the Forest Sector this time, just at random. I needed to work on a program that could locate Info Orbs from long range, and I could implement it into the SuperComputer. Then I would know the best Sector, and the best co-ordinates. It would take a lot of time though, as I wasn't the greatest programmer. Yet...

"So," Brittany asked when we dropped down. "Where to?"

"This way," I said, pointing in a random direction.

"You have no idea, do you?"

"Yeah," I replied.

The subject was dropped. We walked off, and as we were going, I consulted the LI. The radar had a 100 meter radius, so I would be able to know if any Info Orbs were in the area. None were present now.

After a few minutes of silence, a green blip popped up on my radar. "We've got one!" I cried. "This way," I said pointing west. We ran off. Soon we caught up.

I detected no monsters on my radar. I was suspicious. "Hey Tennent," I called.

"Yeah?" He replied.

"Is there anything on your screen at all?" I asked him.

"Yeah! You. And Brittany and Sean."

"Idiot!" Sean said. "He means monsters, numbskull."

"Gee, don't get so uptight! I was just joking dude."

"Whatever," I said, dismissing the issue. "Are there any monsters on the radar?"

"No," He replied after a while. "That's unusual..."

"Oh, so us walking in a virtual world looking for information to save the world is just your everyday run of the mill?" Brittany asked him jokingly.

"Yup," he said.

By now, the Info Orb was upon us, and we didn't waste time talking. I would love to tell you a tale of epic glory, but it was actually pretty easy. With no monsters harassing us, we were able to quickly corner the Orb, and snag it.

"So is that all?" Sean asked.

"I guess so... We don't want to spend too much time here, as we don't know how much time we'll waste tracking down another Orb. I say we go home."

When my friends nodded, I hit a few keys on my LI, and we devirtualized.

* * *

><p>In the Lab, I opened the contents of the Info Orb. I looked at it for a few seconds, and soon I figured out that we had gotten two new keys to Lyoko! We were now 310 of the way to shutting of the SuperComputer!

I shared my discoveries with my friends. This was our last easy victory.

* * *

><p>As we were getting ready to leave, Rachel popped out of her hiding place. "Wow!" she said. "This place looks so cool!"<p>

We groaned in unison. Sean walked up to her. "Look Rachel, you can't tell anyone about this." He began.

"Why not?" She asked.

Sean went on to sketch the details of Lyoko and the SuperComputer, and so on and so forth. He simplified the part about legal issues.

None of us stopped him. There was really nothing else that could be done.

_Except, _I thought. _A Return to the Past! This would sufficiently help us out of our problem._

Without telling anyone what I was doing, I ran over to the computer and began to type the code.

To my great disappointment, a window popped up. It was the Super Scan. An activated Tower in the Ice Sector!

"Guys! Forget Rachel!" This brought a cry of "Hey!" from her direction. "ANAX has activated a Tower, and he's jamming my controls! I can't launch a Return to the Past!"

We quickly sorted it out. Well, sort of quickly. It came to a dispute over who got to go to Lyoko this time between Tennent and Alyssa. Neither had gotten to go last time, so they both wanted to go this time. They were treating it like it was a game!

Stupid me decided to just flip a coin instead of having Brittany and me stay behind to watch out for Rachel. High stress can do things to people.

We were all under high stress. No one disputed the coin toss. Alyssa went to Lyoko, and Tennent stayed.

I transferred them all to Lyoko. Big mistake. Sean and Brittany had just been virtual a few minutes ago. The consequences would be dire for this action.

"So what's all this?" Rachel asked.

"The mainframe of Lyoko," I answered without thinking.

"So what does it do?" She inquired further.

"I can use it to see all that is happening on Lyoko. I can also write some cool programs using it, but I'm still working that out."

A few seconds passed by. "_Please_can I be in your group! I promise I won't tell anyone!" Rachel cried.

"Rachel!" Tennent took over for me. I was grateful. "We can't discuss this now! Besides, I know about your secret keeping skills!"

"What about them?" She asked him.

"Well I can't say they're admirable. Remember Pete?"

She chewed on this for a moment. "Oh come on! You're not going to hold that against me are you? That was years ago!"

Tennent swirled around to say something, but was interrupted by a violent explosion from the room next to the Factory.

We spun in sync to face the noise. "W-w-what was th-that?" Rachel asked.

"Most likely, it is ANAX's attack." I answered.

"Sean, Alyssa, Brittany, Tennent and I need to check something out. Can you manage on your own for a minute?" Without waiting for a reply, I took off. Tennent followed.

I didn't even realize that I had never given the Lyoko Warriors the co-ordinates of the Tower.

* * *

><p>"Sammy! Sammy!"<p>

Silence.

"Great. What do we do now?" Alyssa asked.

"We pick a direction, and hope for the best," Sean told her.

"I don't like the sound of that..."

"We have no other options, now we're wasting time so let's get going," Brittany intoned.

They headed in the direction that they happened to be facing. Which was also the direction directly opposite of the activated Tower...

* * *

><p>"Uff!" Tennent said. "It smells like birthday cake in here!"<p>

We were in the room directly beside the Lab. It was a boiler room of sorts. The area was filled with smoke.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" I asked.

"You know, that smell there is right after someone blows out the candles?"

I stopped. "Tennent,"

"Yes?"

"That's called _smoke._"

"Oh... Whatever."

Soon we stumbled into what I was looking for. There was a pipe that was busted. Smoke was pouring out of it.

"That's really scary, ANAX," Tennent said. "Smoke. Really? Is that all you got?"

"Wait Tennent, we need to get out of here! These fumes could be highly toxic!"

"Huh? How do you know that, Sammy?" He asked.

"Use your head! If ANAX busted the pipe, he wanted it busted! His goal right now is our demise, so everything he does needs a purpose! It's simple logic."

He thought about this.

"We don't have time! We gotta get out of here!" I grabbed his arm, and ran back to the Lab.

As I ran back, I noticed that I was moving very slowly. I didn't feel tired, but for some reason, my legs would not move as fast as I commanded them to.

When I reached the entrance to the Lab, I stopped. _Nuts! _I thought. There was no door into the Lab. Just an open gap. The smoke could easily permeate the Lab.

Tennent obviously had realized what was going on. His wide eyes communicated that he had figured out that the smoke had already affected us, and would likely finish us off since we couldn't block the opening.

We walked into the Lab.

"Great, just great," I said as I looked around. Rachel had left. Probably to go and tattle on us.

"We're in trouble now..." Tennent said.

* * *

><p>Back on Lyoko, things were quite. Too quiet.<p>

"Look, we've been walking for a while, and not one monster," Sean intoned. "I think we're going the wrong way."

"Okay. Let's turn around," Brittany offered.

They traveled through the Ice Sector as quick as they could.

At this point, I hooked up the microphone. "Hey guys! What are you doing? You're further from the Tower than when you started!"

"Don't blame us!" Alyssa retorted. "You're the one who never told us which way to go! We don't have a map on our end you know."

"Oh really! I'm so sorry!" I skimmed the surrounding territory on my screen. "Keep going the way you're going. Soon you'll be able to see the Tower."

Mentally, I kicked myself for being so dumb. This mistake could cost us. Rachel could be back at any time with the principle. If the Tower wasn't deactivated by then, there isn't much I can do.

When they reached the Tower, the only resistance was a Krab. It seemed as if ANAX had given up.

I couldn't worry about subliminal plots right now. The elevator had just been activated! I didn't have any time to think about exactly what ANAX was doing with the Tower, aside from the smoke.

The door of the elevator opened, just as I saw that Alyssa had deactivated the Tower.

"Sammy Belpois, Tennent Della Robbia, what is all this?" Principal Dunbar thundered from the door. He got no response. I was configuring a Return to the Past.

"I want an answer!" He demanded, walking into the Lab.

I finished up, and hit the enter key. A complete white out saved me from having to answer his questions.

Now that that was off my mind, I could worry about other things. Especially the events that followed directly after the Return to the Past.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Ohh!" Brittany moaned. The return in time had put us in the school yard.

She had her hands on her head as she slumped to the ground. Sean soon followed her.

"What's the matter!" Alyssa asked beginning to panic already. "Agh, my head!" Sean exclaimed.

"We need to get them to the infirmary!" Tennent said. "Mm-hm!" I said nodding.

Tennent carried Brittany, and Alyssa and I tried to lift Sean. After some struggling, we succeeded.

The nurse, Katherine, looked in horror when he saw our friends' condition.

"What's happened?" She asked.

"We don't know," I replied. By this point they had both passed out. "They just collapsed!"

We laid them on the beds. After that, the nurse went for a type of scanning device. I didn't know the medical term for it, but it had a sort of X-Ray that could locate any anomalies in a life-form.

When she waved the scanner over Sean's head, it beeped. She then hooked it up to a computer to read the data.

"That's strange..." She murmured.

"What is it?" Alyssa asked.

"There seems to be a sort of infection in his brain! I've never seen anything like this before. If I didn't know better, I'd say there is something wrong with his atomic structure!"

I gasped. "That of course is impossible. This isn't science fiction," She finished.

She ran the test on Brittany, with the same results. "I'll keep them here for now," Katherine told us. "If their conditions worsen, I'll have to call a hospital. For now, you three should get to class."

We thanked her and walked out the door.

"I gotta get back to the Lab," I told Tennent and Alyssa. They nodded. "We'll cover for you," Tennent told me.

* * *

><p>At the Factory, I did some research on the Scanners. It took me two hours of decoding, but I soon found that my suspicions were confirmed.<p>

There were certain side effects to using the Scanners. Each of them had a name. I didn't bother trying to pronounce them. They had at least 15 letters a piece.

Basically, using the Scanners resulted in three things. 1) Immunity to Return to the Pasts. We knew this already. 2) Excessive use will lead to painful headaches.

The Scanners actually broke apart your atoms every time you were virtualized. Humans weren't really made to do that many times. "Excessive" obviously meant more than once in a 12 hour period.

The good news was that the effects weren't permanent. The bad news was that it could become permanent if it happened too many times. We would really have to make sure we didn't make this mistake again.

And the third side effect? I have no idea. There is so much data that is encrypted on the SuperComputer. I have access to almost nothing. This data had a different encryption matrix than the rest of it. I couldn't solve it, and I had already found what I needed.

I put decoding it on my to-do list, but it wouldn't get done for more than a year.

* * *

><p>When I arrived back at Kadic, I informed Tennent and Alyssa of my findings.<p>

"So how long 'till the get better?" Alyssa asked.

"I haven't the foggiest," I replied. "I hope that after 12 hours pass, the pain will go away. I have no real basis for that assumption though. You see, the atomic structure is incredibly complex. It's not supposed to be digitalized into a new incarnation, even though it is capable of it. Some tests indicate a strange anomaly-" Tennent cut me off.

"Thanks Einstein, but save it for someone who cares. It's great to know that the effects aren't permanent. That will be good enough for now."

I let the matter go. I didn't really expect them to be able to understand. Alyssa gave me a sympathetic look. "Y'know Sammy, just because we don't understand the technical aspects of it doesn't mean that we don't care, just that we need a more simplified version."

"Yeah, I know."

"Sure!" Tennent said. "What she said!"

I rolled my eyes.

* * *

><p>Early the next morning, we visited Sean and Brittany. They were awake now, and in almost no pain.<p>

"Feeling better?" Tennent asked.

"Never better!" He replied. "Okay, correction. I've been better," He said holding his head. "I don't feel as bad as I did yesterday. The pain only comes in brief snippets now."

"I'm pretty sure we'll be back in school today even." Brittany added.

Sean motioned for me to come closer. "Do you think this had anything to do with Lyoko?" He asked in a hushed tone.

I replied, "Yeah, it does. I'll tell you... Later." He nodded.

We still had an hour before school, so we went up to our dorms. Tennent was probably going to play some video game, but I had no idea what Alyssa was going to do.

I for one was going to try and decode some of the annals that had been stored on the SuperComputer. I had transferred a small amount of the file to my laptop, so I could work on it whenever I had the time.

In about a half-hour, I realized that I had almost missed breakfast. I still had a few minutes, and I was sure that Tennent would still be there working on a third portion.

I hurried over and ate in a rush. I exchanged only a few words with Tennent before going off the History class.

* * *

><p>It wasn't until 3rd period that Sean and Brittany joined us. In between classes I was getting ready to fill them in, when I had an unwanted interruption.<p>

"Oh Sean, I'm so glad you're feeling better! You really had me worried!" Rachel intoned.

As she walked up to us she asked, "How are you feeling, dear?"

"Ugh," Sean replied. "I was doing better until you came along."

After some... _negotiation _Sean managed to get away. We met in the school yard, and Sean addressed me.

"You were saying?"

I went on to explain about my theory of Return to the Pasts. I simplified it as much as I could, and soon they understood.

"No more double virtualization then," Brittany said.

"Agreed."

* * *

><p>"I don't think we should," I disagreed. We were discussing going on a hunt for Info Orbs tonight.<p>

"Why not?" Sean demanded.

"I don't know if the Scanners are still affecting you," I said. I wasn't willing to take the chance of their headaches returning. The next time it happened, it would be much worse.

"C'mon, Sammy, we feel fine," Brittany said.

"Listen," I told them. "If you want me to lecture you on the quantum mechanics of Lyoko and the SuperComputer, be my guest. But unless you understand how all that works like I do, then you're gonna have to let me decide when it's been long enough."

"But-" Sean began to protest.

Alyssa jumped to my aid. "Did you not just hear him?" She asked. "We don't understand how all this works! We can't just go by feelings!"

This ended the dispute. Alyssa has yet to lose an argument to this day. I think that's why Sean and Brittany gave up.

In any case, we bid each other good night. Tomorrow, we would go after an Info Orb.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Jump higher, Sammy!" Sean called jokingly. I leaped up with all my Lyoko Power for the 16th time. The Info Orb hung quite literally, two inches above my reach. I would swear it was mocking me.

I slammed to the ground. From 20 feet up, it was quite difficult to stick my landing. I had yet to do it. Each time I would jump (and miss the Orb by a despicable amount) I would crash to the ground awkwardly. I was getting tired of it.

"Does it not concern you that this orb hasn't moved for 5 whole minutes?" I asked Sean. He shrugged. It seemed that the movement of these Info Orbs was not random in any way. I would research that later.

In the meantime, I gave another leap.

This time, I knew I had it. At least, I thought I knew. At the last possible second, the Orb zipped away, heading north.

When I collided with the ground again, I had to immediately get up, and chase after my friends. Naturally, they hadn't bothered to wait for me.

I couldn't say I blamed them though. If we gave the Info Orb more than a 1 second advantage, we would lose it for sure. They were fast!

From a distance, I saw Tennent running on a wall of a canyon in the Desert. He was closing in on the Info Orb.

"Ha-HA!" He shouted as he leaped, ready to snag the sphere. Suddenly, he was shot out of the air by a Kankrelat on the top of the canyon. Tennent thudded to the ground.

Brittany jumped in front to protect him. She deflected the laser fire from the three monsters as best as she could, but still several shots got through her guard.

By this time, I had caught up. I looked up, and saw that there were three Kankrelats on one side, and two on the other. They opened fire with an amazing rapidity, catching us in crossfire. There wasn't much I could do.

"Hey," Alyssa asked between dodging lasers. "Where'd Sean go?"

* * *

><p>At this moment, Sean was still pursuing the Info Orb. He had activated his Lyoko Power of invisibility, and was able to continue the chase unmolested.<p>

Obviously, ANAX noticed that Sean was not with the rest of his friends, nor had he been devirtualized. For just as Sean was getting to the end of the canyon, a MegaTank appeared in front of him. It rolled on its side, opened up vertically, and fired its laser.

Sean dove for the ground. Hopefully that would confuse the monster, thinking that it had miscalculated. When no more blasts followed, Sean assumed that the monster had given up. But alas, he was wrong.

The monster saw what he was waiting for. The telltale _poofs _of virtual dust where Sean put his feet down. He was invisible, but not undetectable.

This time, the monster fired and the laser sliced into Sean, devirtualizing him.

* * *

><p>When I saw Sean's icon disappear from my LI, I guessed what had happened. Now the Info Orb was gone, we had 5 Kankrelats keeping us in a gauntlet, and a MegaTank coming towards us quickly. It was amazing what a lucky shot from a blasted Kankrelat could do.<p>

I warned my friends of the approaching MegaTank.

"We've got to get out of here!" Brittany said. No deliberation was necessary.

We ran away. The Kankrelats were not easily deterred. They kept firing at us. As our distance increased, the Kankrelats began to miss by quite a large margin.

Unfortunately, we were now surviving, but we had lost the Info Orb entirely, and had no bearing on a new one.

"Hello?" We heard Sean's voice from the Factory. "We're here Houdini!" Tennent yelled.

Still running, I said over my shoulder, "Tennent, Houdini was an escape artist, not a disappearing dude."

"WHAT. EVER."

"Mind explaining what happened?" Brittany asked.

"Sure," He replied. "I turned invisible to try and get the Info Orb. A MegaTank got me. Speaking of which, it's right behind you."

I heard the MegaTanks laser fire. "Watch out!" Sean cried.

Before I could do anything, the blast hit me and sent me spinning back into reality.

_Watch out, _I thought. _Good advice._

_Good advice, too late. _I revised.

I headed up to the factory. Sean was waiting in my chair. Without a word, he got up and let me take control of the Lyoko Interface.

"Hey guys," I said into the microphone. "Better get a move on," I warned them. "The Kankrelats are catching up with you!"

"Easier said than done!" Alyssa replied.

Before long, the Kankrelats reached them. Now, their hands were too full. It wasn't long before Brittany was devirtualized, as she had the lowest amount of Life Points.

"Run to the Tower!" I told them. It was the only hope.

Tennent and Alyssa turned tail and ran. The got to the Tower, and went in.

After they calmed down, Tennent asked, "What now?"

"I suggest you change Towers," I told them. They did so. They came up in the opposite edge of the Sector.

I did a quick scan. "We're in luck!" I told them. "There's an Info Orb in the area if you're up to it."

"How many Life Points do we have?" Alyssa asked.

"You've got 80," I told her. "Tennent, you've only got 20. Just two hits and your gone."

They exited the Tower. To be quite frank, I didn't expect them to retrieve the Orb.

To my surprise, they managed to corner the Orb and grab it. "Now what?" Alyssa asked. She held the Orb tightly in her hands.

"Hang on, I'll work something out." I said.

The last Info Orb we got, I held it up to my LI for it to be transferred. I didn't know how to get the data if I wasn't on Lyoko.

I began to piece together a retrieval program. It was a little shaky, but I thought it would work. I went for 3 whole minutes with no disruptions.

"Any day now Einstein," Tennent said. "I'm working, I'm working!" I told him.

Suddenly, an alert popped up on my screen. "Oh no..." I muttered.

"That didn't sound good." Alyssa said.

"What's the matter?" Sean asked me.

"There is a large amount of energy accumulating directly above Tennent and Alyssa. I'm guessing that it's ANAX," I reported.

There was nothing that could be done. I watched in horror as the energy maxed out, and ANAX's digital signature appeared on my screen. With no effort, he had devirtualized Tennent and Alyssa, and stolen the Info Orb.

I hung my head.

* * *

><p>"What can we do about this?" Tennent asked. "Every time we pin an Orb down, ANAX can steal it from us!"<p>

"I don't know..." I answered honestly. "The only thing I can do is get my program working for the retrieval of Info Orbs."

"Say what?" Brittany asked.

"It's a program that I tried to throw together in order to get the data from the Info Orb that Alyssa had. I don't know much about how those things work, so it could take me a while to get it working."

I wasn't finished. "On top of that, I'm still trying to decode the information on the SuperComputer. There is sure to be data on there that can help us."

We decided that I should work on the Info Orb program. To let ANAX get his hands on the keys to Lyoko would be catastrophic. Nothing in the journal on the SuperComputer would reverse that should it happen.

"I'll have to work through the night," I told them. "This program is too important, and there are too many unknowns. Also, I'll have to test it in some way. We can't risk it failing on Lyoko. That will take more even more time."

"Sammy," Alyssa cautioned. "You can't possibly work through the night. We have school tomorrow, remember?"

"I appreciate your concern," I said. "But I can't explain to you all the complexities. I have to do this."

Despite this, Alyssa and Brittany both decided that they would stay with me in the Factory until curfew. I could then transfer my work through the internet to my computer in my dorm.

It was gonna be a long night.

* * *

><p>Jim patrolled the dormitory hallway in full military attire. In unison we all repeated the rules.<p>

He walked up to Tyce Bowers, who was infamous for his practical jokes. "No funny business!" He warned.

"Oh, come on Jim, when have I ever-"

"Save it," Jim said. "I know you too well to trust you."

He turned to the rest of us. "Dismissed!" He said.

If I had paid a little more attention, then I would have noticed Tyce enter his room with a smirk. Of course, I was too preoccupied to notice. Around 3 in the morning though, things got interesting.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

I worked feverishly on my program. There were several problems to overcome. First and foremost was the digital signature of the Info Orbs. The way it was oriented normally made it impossible to use my program while the Orb was just flying around.

I was pretty sure I could get it to work when the digital signature was modified by a Lyoko Warrior holding it in their hands. The reason behind this is that the energy of an Info Orb is too erratic for it to be downloaded outright. When it came into contact with a Lyoko Warrior (Or ANAX or a monster for that matter), its signature was modified to make it calmer.

In order for this to work, I had to hardwire all my friends' digital signature into my program. Otherwise, my program wouldn't be able to pick up the proper signal. This in itself was a daunting task.

After that was finished, I still needed a protected access protocol for the data transfer. If I didn't have that, ANAX could steal at will the data that was being downloaded. This would be hard as well.

And finally I would have to test it. Since I couldn't waste an opportunity on Lyoko to run a simple test, I had to resort to more drastic measures.

I would create a virtual model of an Info Orb. In order to do this, I would have to try and scan one on the next trip to Lyoko. I wasn't even sure if this would work, for each Info Orb might contain a different signature.

On top of that, I would need an environment for the test Orb. I would base the environment off of Lyoko. That would be nearly impossible, since most of the SuperComputer's data was still in code.

Seeing how fast it was going so far, I would consider myself lucky to hardwire two Lyoko Warrior's digital signatures into the program.

* * *

><p>In his room, Tyce cackled quietly to himself. From under his bed, he pulled a large tub of maple syrup. He had big plans for tonight.<p>

At 2:45 AM, he couldn't wait any longer. He set out, tub in hand.

He opened the door to Xavier's room. All clear. As quietly as he could, he tip-toed to the side of his bed. Tyce unscrewed the top or the tub, and poured a generous amount of syrup into Xavier's hair, making sure that the syrup dripped onto his pillow.

He was done in that room. He moved along the dorms, soaking Micah, Julian, Phillip, Freddy, Tennent, and Sean in syrup.

He then came to Sammy's room. He quietly opened the door, to find me asleep in my computer chair.

At this moment, an alert for an activated Tower jolted me awake. I spun around and saw Tyce in my door way. He seemed to throw something out into the hallway, but I was groggy, and my glasses were off, so I couldn't be sure.

"Tyce," I asked in a shaky tone.

"Yeah... hey! Um... I was just... wanting your help in my physics homework," He answered weakly.

"At 3 in the morning?" I asked, looking at the clock.

"Well, um..."

I was suspicious now. Tyce never showed much interest in physics, and most of the time when he was in my room, it was to pull a prank. I casually glanced at my computer screen.

To my horror, I saw that ANAX had activated a tower. Not good.

"Ok Tyce," I said. "I don't know what you're doing in here, but I don't care. I have something important to do. Can you leave?"

"Sure!" Was his relieved answer.

He scurried off.

I got my phone, and while getting dressed, I called Alyssa. No answer.

I tried Brittany. Luckily she answered. I informed her of the situation, and asked her to wake Alyssa up. After that, I headed off to wake up Sean and Tennent.

When I got to their dorm, I discovered what Tyce had been doing. Syrup was all over my friends' heads!

I ignored it for now.

"Wake up," I said, shaking Sean.

"Wa... Whozit!" Sean mumbled.

"It's Sammy!" I told him. "You've got to wake up! ANAX has activated a tower!"

He soon roused.

Waking Tennent would be a harder challenge.

* * *

><p>When we got to the Factory, we found Alyssa and Brittany waiting for us. We didn't know it, but we had a trailer.<p>

"What on earth is up with your hair?" Brittany asked, giggling.

Both Sean and Tennent had their hair spiked and frozen in weird positions. To make matters worse, their pillow cases were stuck to the side of their heads.

"Not. A. Word." Tennent said stone facedly.

That did little to stop the smirks from the girls.

"Ok guys, off to Lyoko. The faster we get this finished, the faster we can go back to sleep."

I got off of the elevator. "I'll launch the transfer," I said to them, as they headed down to the Scanners.

I set up the procedure. "Transfer, Alyssa ... Transfer, Brittany," I said, typing the commands.

"Scanner, Alyssa ... Scanner, Brittany ... Virtualization!"

I then scanned the guys.

"What's all this?" said a voice behind me.

I turned around. _Oh nuts, _I thought.

It was Tyce.

* * *

><p>Tyce repeated his question. I sighed.<p>

"Tyce, I can't explain it all to you. Just hang tight for about 10 minutes, and then I'll explain." I of course, had no such intentions. A Return to the Past would do the trick.

"Guys," I said, speaking into the microphone. "It looks like I'll be staying here. Tyce followed us to the Factory.

"Oh, wait till I get my hands on that twerp!" Sean growled.

"Focus!" Alyssa said laughing. "For now, we need to worry about the Tower."

I gave them the coordinates, and the headed out.

I on the other hand, had to deal with Tyce...

* * *

><p>Brittany stood in the Forest Sector. After hearing Sammy's voice give them the coordinates she left in the proper direction.<p>

She almost didn't need the coordinates, as very quickly, they spotted a dark blue Tower. There were no monsters in sight.

"It's quiet..." She said.

"Too quiet if you ask me," Tennent intoned.

They continued in silence.

Soon they came to the activated Tower. It was in an open space, with several trees located randomly on the terrain.

10 feet from the Tower, Brittany heard a noise behind her. She turned.

"Tarantulas! Watch out!" Sammy's voice warned.

More good advice. Too late.

A laser impacted with her, sending her to the ground.

Sean vanished, and Tennent climbed up a tree to snipe the 3 Tarantulas.

Brittany got up slowly.

"Alyssa!" Sammy called. "Run to the Tower! ANAX hasn't blocked that off!"

She did so.

Brittany thought that was strange, that ANAX would somehow forget to place guards in front of the Tower. It was even stranger that the only monsters they could see didn't prohibit access to the Tower.

She realized what was happening too late. Her first clue was a buzzing sound.

Before she could call a warning, 4 Hornets appeared from behind the tower and blasted Alyssa to the ground.

Brittany glanced over her shoulder. Sean and Tennent seemed to be holding their own against the Tarantulas. She raced off to help Alyssa.

* * *

><p>From his perch, Tennent fired several Laser Arrows. He missed by a small margin. When he fired again, he scored a hit.<p>

"Yeah!" he cried as the monster exploded.

Soon, Sean's body became visible again. He had run out of energy. Tennent leaped to the ground to give his friend a hand. Make that a paw...

* * *

><p>Sean watched as the Tarantula opened fire with confidence. He holstered his whip, and drew out his short sword to try and repel the attack.<p>

Such was the strength of the barrage that it soon blasted the sword from his hand. He dove out of the way.

He activated his laser whip and slashed it at the monster. It was pure luck that the laser coiled around the monster's snout. Sean gave a yank, and the monster came close to the ground. He whipped out a throwing knife and stabbed it into the monster's XANA eye.

Tennent leaped over Sean. "Need some help?" he asked.

"Nah, I'm good," was the reply.

"Well then, we can finish up quick." Tennent said.

They did.

* * *

><p>Back at the Factory, I watched the screen. Tennent and Sean took out the last Tarantula.<p>

"Sean, Tennent, go help the girls, it looks like they could be in trouble!" I told them.

A confused Tyce watched from beside me.

Alyssa and Brittany had killed one Hornet each, but the other two were more persistent. The kept moving, while having a steady rate of fire.

When Tennent and Sean arrived, it evened things out a little more. Soon, there were no more monsters.

When the Tower was deactivated, I launched a Return to the Past.

Tyce started to say something, but he was cut off by the wave of light. I, for one, was not concerned about what he was about to say.

After the return, I realized that I had no idea what the attack was. That worried me.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

The return in time landed us at about 7:00 the previous day. Sean and Tennent set about preparations for Tyce's visit immediately. I on the other hand, had important things to do.

I located the activated Tower on my computer's interface. With a quick scan, I saw immediately what ANAX's attack had been.

The reading that I got back from the Tower showed it nearly devoid of energy. It was quite clear that the energy had been siphoned out. In order for my guess to be confirmed, we would have to go to Lyoko. That could wait.

For now, the reading I got from the Tower brought up some provocative questions. I began to research.

* * *

><p>Tennent and Sean had made every effort to make sure that they didn't fall asleep that night. Seeing how funny Tyce's prank would be in the morning, they had no intention of stopping him. They simply wanted to avoid being pranked themselves.<p>

They decided to keep each other awake; they would play Galactic Invaders XXII. First one to 500 victories wins.

They set up their beds to accommodate them. Tennent could go on for hours about the finer points of video game playing.

It was amazing the amount of pointless information he knew.

* * *

><p>The night passed much in the same way it did the last time. Minus the ANAX attack.<p>

When Tyce came to my room, I simply dismissed him. I hoped that he wouldn't get too suspicious about my being awake. I needn't have worried.

The results of my research could prove helpful, but it wasn't what I was hoping for. Still, the info I found needed to be discussed, so I called a meeting.

Sean and Tennent came into my room messing with their phones. They were snickering. It didn't take me long to deduce that they had taken pictures of their classmates' strange hairdos.

I swiveled my chair around. "Hey guys," I said.

"Hey," they said back.

"What's this meeting about?" Brittany asked.

"Well," I started. "The last Tower that was activated did not seem to power an attack on earth, right?" They nodded. "It seems though, that ANAX used the Tower's energy to strengthen himself. I can't confirm it yet, so later today, we have to go to Lyoko."

"Now?" Tennent asked, jumping up.

"Tennent," I said.

"Yeah?"

"I said later today."

"Oh."

"Here is another thing I have to tell you about," I said. "Seeing the activated Tower's energy gone, I did some research. I didn't find what I was looking for, but I still found some interesting stuff."

"You already know about the original Lyoko Warriors right?" I asked. They nodded again. "Well, it wasn't hard to figure out some interesting stuff." I turned to Tennent. "You are the grandson of Odd Della Robbia." To Brittany: "You are the granddaughter of Yumi and Ulrich Stern." I continued. "I am the grandson of Jeremy and Aelita Belpois."

I turned to Sean. "You and I are cousins," I said. He already knew this.

"With all that being said, we can see that we are all related to the original Lyoko Warriors in some way. Brittany seems to be a lot like Yumi on Lyoko, while Tennent seems to be like Odd. The SuperComputer has related our DNA to that of the previous Lyoko Warriors."

I went on. "BUT, there is something that baffles me," I said turning to Alyssa. "Alyssa, I have to ask you. Are the pink stripes in your hair natural, or is it dyed?"

She embarrassedly answered, "No, it's natural."

I nodded. "This confuses me further. Aelita had natural pink hair. The SuperComputer seems to have related you to Aelita, based on your Lyoko Powers. I can't understand this, as I am the descendant of Jeremy and Aelita."

I forced myself to ask the question, "Alyssa, can you tell me the name of your great-grandparents?"

"Waldo and Anthea Schaeffer on my dad's side, and on my mom's, John and Kathy Grant," she replied after some thought.

_Rats, _I thought. _That wasn't the answer I was hoping for._

I pondered this for a moment.

"Well, it seems as if Alyssa is the only one not related to the original Lyoko Warriors." I hated to say it, especially watching her cringe.

"I asked her the question because there is another man associated with Lyoko," I said.

"Who?" Sean asked.

"His name is Franz Hopper," I answered. "I found a record on the SuperComputer's memory. He was the last person to use the SuperComputer. I don't understand all of it, but the last process that was done was the use of the Scanners that reversed the side effects of using them."

"How's that possible?" Alyssa asked.

"I don't know."

"I was wondering if by some chance, Alyssa was related to Franz, but I guess I was wrong."

We sat in silence for a few moments.

"Any other enlightening information?" Tennent asked.

"Just one piece," I said.

"I found a note on the Return to the Past program. It was cautioning on the limits of Returns to the Past."

"Limits?" Brittany asked.

"Apparently, Returns to the Past don't undo deaths."

I let that sink in.

After a while, Brittany said, "But that means we're in more trouble than we can imagine! In the few Returns we've already done, there surely have been thousands of unexplained deaths all over the world!"

"Maybe not," I said.

"First of all, I don't think there is a way to prove that it is us that caused the deaths. Nobody knows about the SuperComputer except us, and some of our grandparents. Even they don't remember the Returns because of what Franz Hopper did to them."

"Second, I did some research on how Returns to the Past work, and how XANA affects them. It seems that note that I found was not very well researched."

"Go on," Brittany urged.

"It seems to me, that Returns to the Past will undo deaths. But that makes me wonder why the note is there."

I paused.

"The answer is XANA. XANA's digital imprint is like a disease. It messes _everything _up. If you are affected by XANA's imprint, a Return to the Past does nothing for you."

After a moment, I continued, "To the best of my knowledge, if you are simply touched by XANA's imprint, it doesn't affect you enough. If XANA has done enough to you to kill you, it's too late."

"Like the wolves for example, if they had managed to kill Sean, enough of XANA's imprint would have been transferred to him, so that a Return would not do anything. Since the Return reversed his wounds, it's clear that you can sustain some XANA damage before it's too late. Or in our case, ANAX"

"It seems that there is more to this, but until I can decode the journal on the SuperComputer, I'm in the dark."

There were a few seconds of silence.

"That's a lot to take in!" Tennent said.

Yes indeed.

* * *

><p>A few hours later, we were on Lyoko. From the Tower that was last activated, I could investigate on the Interface, and hopefully I would then be able to confirm or deny my theory.<p>

The Tower soon came into view. My gut wrenched as I saw it. It was silhouetted in black fog.

For some reason, it was sickening. It incited this feeling of horror in me that I can't explain.

From the grimaces on my friends' faces, I could tell they were thinking the same thing.

"What is it about that black that seems so wrong?" Alyssa asked.

I didn't have an answer.

"Well, whatever it is, I have to go inside to check it out. There's no reason you guys can't come with me."

They all followed.

When I got to the center of the Tower, I opened the Interface with a mental command. I scanned for data.

"The power of this Tower has been suctioned out," I reported. "I can see that a transfer took place. It looks like I was right. ANAX has used the power to increase his own."

Gasps met that.

"But-but," Sean stuttered. "If ANAX can do this whenever he wants to, what's to stop him from becoming infinitely powerful?"

Tennent answered, "Us. We're the only thing in his way."

He was dead right. It seemed as if the weight I was carrying increased.

We left the black Tower, and I rematerialized us.

* * *

><p>Back on Earth, we had had a lighter issue to deal with. Tennent's birthday was tomorrow! We had some planning to do.<p>

The gang, sans Tennent, met in the Park.

We brought our presents to show them to each other.

I was not very creative. I got him a gift card to Presto Burger. I knew he loved that place.

Sean had gotten him a new skateboard.

Alyssa had gotten him a new hat.

Brittany, as a prank, got him a physics text book. Inside the text book, was a ticket the RapidFflow concert, which was his favorite band.

We made some preparations for his room, and we called his parents. They were making a surprise visit to Kadic.

Soon, everything was arranged.

* * *

><p>Tennent's birthday fell on a Sunday, which was good, because we didn't have school.<p>

He was still asleep, and we had gathered quietly in his room. When we were ready, we shook him awake, and yelled, "Surprise!"

He rubbed his eyes sleepily.

"We've got some cake!" Sean called. "That ought to wake you up!" Tennent perked up at the sound of this.

"Aw, thanks guys!" He said when he noticed the room decorated.

His hair, which was normally carefully spiked, was a mess. He didn't seem to care as he dug into his cake.

We hung out in his room for a while. A few hours later, when he had managed to take a shower and get dressed, his parents arrived.

The day carried on. After a while, his parents left.

Sean and Tennent headed back to their dorm, to find a surprise that would change our lives considerably.

* * *

><p>Tennent walked into his room and kicked back on his bed.<p>

"Did you have a good time today?" Sean asked.

"You bet!" He said. "Thanks again."

Sean walked over to the far end of the room. There was a strange box with holes there.

"Hey, Tennent, do you know what this is?" Sean asked.

Tennent got up, and inspected it. "No I don't," He answered. He found a piece of paper attached to it.

He ripped it off and began to read aloud what it had written on it.

"Dear Tennent, Happy Birthday! We hope you enjoy this special surprise. Love, Mom and Dad."

"Well, open it!" Sean prodded.

Tennent did so.

He gasped in surprise.

"It's a cat!" Sean yelled.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"Are your parents crazy?" Sean asked. "Don't they know that no pets are allowed?"

Tennent paid little regard. He was already petting the black and white streaked cat. "C'mon, Sean," He said. "How cool would it be to have a cat?"

Sean's mind was set. He wasn't budging.

Before long, Tennent had gathered Alyssa, Brittany, and I into his dorm with Sean. It didn't take a long time for Alyssa to notice the cat.

"Aww, He's adorable!" She exclaimed, cuddling him.

"Adorable or not, how can we keep him a secret?" Sean asked. We argued for a while.

Tennent, Brittany, and Alyssa were in favor of keeping him. Sean and I were against it.

If I had known more about that cat, I would have never let Tennent keep it. I could always mess his Lyoko Avatar if I needed to.

Sadly, it was kinda hard to not want to keep a little kitten like that. Soon, Tennent made the argument: "I'm sure that anyone on this floor of the dormitory would be willing to keep him a secret! He could be the whole dorm's pet!"

Soon, we had the whole dorm in Tennent's room. Sean and I were the only ones against keeping the cat. We relented.

Even though the whole floor agreed to keep him a secret, the cat was mostly Tennent's pet. The cat didn't seem to like anyone else as much as it liked Tennent.

"What are you going to name him?" Alyssa asked, cradling the kitten. "Oreo?"

Tennent gave her a look that said, "Do you really expect me to name my cat that?"

After thinking for a little while, Tennent made his choice. "His name will be Smudge, cause that spot of white on his nose looks like it's smudged."

With the matter resolved, we all went back to our dorms.

Tennent then made a home for the animal. He cleared out the bottom drawer of his dresser. He put a spare pillow in the drawer for the cat to lie on.

In the box Smudge came in, there was the address of a local pet store. Tennent made a trip there, and exhausted most of his funds on some cat food, and a more suitable bed for his cat. He also got a few small toys, but he didn't have enough money to get anything nice.

Back at his dorm, he arranged his purchases in the bottom drawer of his dresser. The food he kept under his bed.

* * *

><p>When I had gone back to my room, I started to work more on my program for fetching Info Orbs. Smudge would not let me alone.<p>

For some reason, I was quite worried about him. If I had known the trouble he would cause, I would somehow found a way to get rid of him.

That cat is the smartest animal I have ever seen. It was almost as if he _knew _what we didn't want him to do. He found ways to purposefully annoy us. At least is seemed that way. There will be an accounting of that later.

In any case, I found it hard to concentrate on my program. After a while, I managed to convince myself that he couldn't cause any problems. After all, cats don't make much noise, and our whole floor of 8th grade boys agreed to keep him a secret.

I managed to get some more work done, and also found a shortcut. I had been doing it the hard way. If I wanted to hard wire my friends' Digital Signature into the program, I could do so directly from the Scanners. I was amazed that that did not occur to me earlier.

I was nearly ready to call up my friends and ask them to come to the Factory so I could scan them, when a window popped up on my screen. ANAX had activated a tower!

* * *

><p>In Sean and Tennent's room, Smudge was exploring his new home. Suddenly, a blue cloud of static erupted from an outlet.<p>

Before Tennent could do anything, the cloud attacked his cat, and in a few moments, the eye of ANAX had replaced the cat's pupils.

The cat was young, only about 7 inches long. Even still, when possessed by a demonic Multi Agent System, it was formidable.

Smudge lunged at Sean, his needle sharp claws slashing. Tennent and Sean fled the room, slamming the door behind them.

"This is war, you hear me ANAX? This! Is! War!" Tennent exclaimed. He was quite ticked off about ANAX taking control of his cat.

Just then, his phones rang. It was me, informing him about the activated. Of course, he already knew. He told me so.

In short order, we had met at the Factory. By this time, it was about 8:00 PM.

* * *

><p>"You ready?" I asked Sean and Alyssa. Tennent and Brittany had stayed at Kadic to see if they could stop the cat from doing too much.<p>

"Whenever you are," Alyssa told me.

"Alright, here we go!"

I set up the transfers, and then transferred myself. The activated tower was in the Mountain Sector.

* * *

><p>Tennent and Brittany listened at the door. They heard nothing. Cautiously, they opened the door. To their horror, no cat was to be found, and the window was busted.<p>

Without a word, they turned around and headed for the school grounds. This took much too long for them. The dorms had been expanded to almost thrice the size it was when it was built.

When they got out the door, they saw several scorch marks on the ground and some trees. This was fairly puzzling.

"Where'd all those scorch marks come from?" Tennent asked.

"The only answer is that ANAX somehow made them using Smudge," Brittany said.

They followed the path left by the cat to find it wreaking havoc near the Science building. Several people had many gashes across their arms and legs. Others had burn marks.

They watched as Smudge opened his mount and shot a stream of electricity out at Izzy. He cringed in fear.

Brittany sighed. "No time like the present," She muttered.

* * *

><p>On Lyoko, we had reached the activated Tower. Well, we were in the vicinity at least. 6 Hornets and 2 Bloks kept us busy.<p>

"Pincher movement!" A hornet called. They broke off from peppering Brittany, fled behind the Tower, and reemerged, three on each side.

The rapid fire grouped us together in the middle of the Blok's cross hairs. A few laser blasts later, and we were spread like bowling pins.

I announced the Life Point totals. Brittany: 80, Sean: 90, Me: 60. I had been shot several times while on the ground.

Seeing the Hornet's strategy, I reversed it on them. It didn't take too long for my friends' to catch on. The Bloks were cornered up against the Tower, and quickly fell.

We were so close to the Tower, that Brittany attempted an entry. A Hornet with particularly good aim shot her out of the path.

Sean used the distraction to kill the Hornet, while I leaped up high and slashed another.

Brittany's fan whirled in front of me, taking out a third. I was amazed! We had more than halved their forces!

A Hornet sprayed a green liquid out of its "mouth" onto the ground. By instinct, we rolled out of the way. I wasn't agile enough. The green liquid, which I discovered was a poison of sorts, quickly eroded my Life Points. In no time at all, I was at 10 points.

Sean threw 4 knives in the direction of a Hornet, but his aim was off, and they all missed.

For the next few minutes, we could do little more than dodge the blasts of our enemies. The kept ducking behind the opposite side of the Tower, poking up only long enough to keep a steady rate of fire.

Every time we tried to enter the Tower, we were cut off.

I sighed.

* * *

><p>When Smudge saw Brittany and Tennent, he turned his attention to them. He charged, firing a volley of electric blasts. When he came within range, he leaped, slashing at Tennent. The sight was almost too much to bear.<p>

He dove out of the way, but landed awkwardly in the bushes. Now he had multiple scratches across his body from the bush. It was nothing compared to Buddy's wounds though.

_I sure hope Sean, Alyssa, and Sammy get that Tower deactivated soon, _He thought.

* * *

><p>On Lyoko, there was only one Hornet left. Brittany had been devirtualized and Sean had run out of throwing knives.<p>

We didn't need to worry, for a Hornet made a fatal mistake. It came from the right side of the Tower, directly in my sights. I leaped, and dispatched him.

I deactivated the Tower by entering the Code: Lyoko. From the LI, I launched a Return to the Past.

* * *

><p>Tennent and Brittany watched as Smudge began to writhe. A blue fog spilled from his mouth, and after that, he returned to normal.<p>

A few seconds later, a wave of pure light engulfed all of Kadic Academy.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

A few days passed. Tennent needed some time to get his routine sorted out with Smudge around now. After a while, we decided to go to Lyoko again and try for an Info Orb.

I had made a lot of progress on my program, but there was still a small amount to go. I had the Lyoko Warriors digital signatures in the program, and I had almost worked out the retrieval code.

In my research, I had found out a little more about Info Orbs, and now I had expanded the range from which they could be detected. This would hopefully speed things up.

When school was finished for the day, I called my friends. Soon, we were at the Factory.

"So what Sector are we going to today, Sammy?" Brittany asked.

"I don't know yet," I replied, sitting in the chair. "I'll see if I can do a scan, and pick the right one."

"You can do that now?" Sean asked.

"Yup," I said. "At least, I think I can..."

"Well, let's hope it works," Tennent said, crossing his fingers.

The range of the scanner was limited, and the scan was also limited to finding Info Orbs only. I had sacrificed being able to scan for everything (which would include monsters) for more range. I could scan nearly a third of a Sector.

It was time to put it to the test.

I opened the program, and with a few keystrokes, I launched it. I set the coordinates for the Mountain Sector.

The screen went wild. Data windows opened and closed, informing me of Orb activity. The program automatically tallied the results, and at the end, it could give me the Sector with the highest concentration of Info Orbs.

It took about a minute per scan, and three scans per Sector. So in twelve minutes, we'd be done.

In that time, I tried to explain the program to my friends. "This program utilizes the distortion pattern given off by Info Orbs. Surprisingly enough, the energy is a _distortion, _even though this is pure Lyoko data. I haven't worked out why that is, but-"

"Fascinating," Tennent said, interrupting me. "If you don't mind, can you dumb it down a bit?"

I sat there for a few seconds.

"Okay... Basically, the program tracks the energy given off by Info Orbs. There's more to it than that, but I don't think I can explain it in a way that you'll understand."

To me, that much was obvious. _Of course _the program tracks the Info Orbs somehow. I shook my head. I couldn't worry about it.

Soon, the scans were done. There were 3 Orbs in the Desert Sector. I informed my friends, and set the coordinates near one of the Info Orbs.

Five virtualizations later, we all stood in a Desert.

In the distance we saw a bright speck ducking and weaving. We also heard a strange noise. And a few seconds later, we saw a strange sight.

* * *

><p><em><span>Klank Klank Klank Klank<span>_

That was the sound of a new beast walking towards us. It was taller than we were. As it drew closer, I could make out more details.

It was the color of sand, with silver where its joints were. It walked on six legs, which made that "Klanking" noise when it stepped down. It also had four arms. The body was straight and rigid, like a thick pole. The monster stood upright. Its head was almost spherical. On it, was emblazoned the eye of ANAX, unlike the other monsters we had seen up until now, which had an eye of XANA on them.

At the end of its top two arms were laser blasters. I knew this because lasers were coming out of those arms.

On its other two arms, it had what seemed to be swords. It didn't look like it could use them well, until I saw the Info Orb make a U-turn.

Instead of turning around, the monster simply started walking backwards, turn its body around it segments until it was facing the direction the Orb was going. First it turned the segment with the sword arms, then the laser arms, and finally, its head.

With mobility like that, it could prove to be a formidable enemy.

"What _is _that thing?" Alyssa breathed after she had recovered.

After a while, I answered, "ANAX must have created a new monster!"

"Well new monster or not, it's getting close to the Info Orb! We've got to stop him!" Sean yelled.

We ran after the monster. It was fast, but not so fast that we could not catch up.

When we got close to it, it turned its head around still pursuing the Orb. The monster then turned his lasers around, and opened fire.

We dodged, and came out untouched. Then, things took and interesting turn as the monster ducked into a canyon.

We blindly followed. Too late, I looked at my radar. Two more of the monsters were waiting for us... hanging on the walls!

"Watch out!" I warned, just laser fire exploded around us.

Sean spun his whip around one of the monsters' legs, and jerked it to the ground. Alyssa finished it with an Energy Field.

Tennent and I were facing another one. I tried to distract its fire, while Tennent would shoot at it. Every time he did though, the monster blocked the Laser Arrow with one of its sword arms.

After some fighting, we had destroyed the monsters, but in the fight, we had lost Tennent.

And the Info Orb was no longer on my screen.

* * *

><p>I tried to coach Tennent in running my scan program, so that we could hopefully find the Info Orb.<p>

The Lyoko Interface had to mouse to use. Instead, it was based on a main command window, which appeared at the bottom of the screen. From that window, you could tell the computer to do things, such as opening and running a program, or editing a program. You could always return to the main command window by hitting the F5 key.

There is one small snag. The commands are not as simple as "Open file 3. Run file 3." You were required to tell the computer to fetch the data from a certain "zone". There were many sub-zones, and whatnot. It was difficult to get Tennent to understand exactly what he had to type, so in the end, I dictated the code to him down to the character.

After a while, he had located the Info Orbs. The coordinates were displayed, and he told them to us.

I made a mental note to add my scanning program to my LI.

After a half of an hour, we had nearly captured the Info Orb.

I jumped up, and snagged it. I then downloaded the data to the LI, and rematerialized us.

* * *

><p>"Yeah!" Tennent called. "One more Info Orb!"<p>

"Right," I said. "Let's see what's in it."

I opened the file. It was the fourth key to Lyoko! I told my friends this. There was some cheering.

But we had other matters to discuss.

"I have something to ask you guys," I started.

"As far as you know, ANAX's most destructive attack was his most recent one, right?" They nodded, so I continued.

"And now we find a new monster that the SuperComputer has no knowledge of, because no data on it existed in the data banks. It was obviously created by ANAX."

I took a breath. "And both of these things happen just after ANAX has stolen power from a Tower."

Brittany saw where I was going. "So ANAX has definitely gotten stronger since he took that power!"

"Exactly," I told her.

So that night was a little bittersweet. We had succeeded in taking one more step towards our goal, but we now knew that we were fighting a more powerful enemy.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

For the rest of the day, I worked on my program. When I got tired, I slept a little. Morning was heralded with bright light from the window piercing my eyes. I groggily got out of bed.

In a few minutes, I went to take a shower. Tennent and Sean were already there.

"Hey guys," I greeted them. I didn't get a reply.

After a few seconds, I asked, "What's the matter?"

Still, I got no answer.

I gave up. It was clear that they got in a fight, and only time would reveal the matter being quarreled over.

Tennent and Sean avoided each other in the bathroom. They showered at opposite ends of the room, and the brushed their teeth as far away from each other as was possible.

This continued until breakfast. Sean sat at the far end of the cafeteria, while Tennent sat in the front.

I sat near the middle with Alyssa and Brittany.

"Does anyone know what's wrong with them?" Brittany asked. Alyssa shook her head. I copied her.

"I tried talking to them," I said, "but it wasn't long before I figured out that they weren't going to say anything."

I knew Sean and Tennent better than Alyssa and Brittany did. I had been friends with them for a while, whereas the girls had only grown close to them in the past month or so.

Fights like this occurred every once in a while, and usually they resolved themselves without outside help. I wasn't sure if we could afford to be quarreling though, having to keep up with ANAX and all.

I said as much to Brittany and Alyssa.

"Well I sure hope ANAX lays low long enough for them to work this out," Alyssa said.

* * *

><p>Earlier, the previous night, Sean and Tennent had returned to their dorms to find Sean's bed shredded. Smudge was the only suspect.<p>

Sean's mattress had some tears in it, but that wasn't the worst part. Every week, the Kadic students brought their old sheets into the cleaning room for them to be washed. It would be hard to conceal the fact that the sheets were torn.

Sean was mad at Tennent because he refused to have his mom and dad come and pick Smudge up, and he also refused to discipline the cat. Sean was sure that if nothing was done, stuff would be ripped too often, and soon, even with the whole floor of boys on their side, they would be caught, and Sean would be held accountable as well as Tennent for keeping Smudge a secret.

Fighting continued. Sean was willing to compromise. As long as Smudge was taught not to scratch things in the future, he would be fine.

Tennent on the other hand, insisted that cats needs to claw things to keep their claws sharp. It was their nature.

But on Sean's view again, how long would it be until Smudge tried scratching the door? That would be noticed very quickly at a Dorm Inspection by Jim.

Again, on Tennent's side, as long as Smudge had other stuff to scratch, he wouldn't scratch the door.

Sean: Tennent should buy a scratching post, or get Smudge de-clawed.

Tennent: He's broke, and besides, if you take away a cat's claws, it's not a cat anymore. It's just a... human pet.

And so on and so forth. The argument couldn't be resolved.

They continued to snub each other through the course of the day.

* * *

><p>After school, I headed up to my room to do some more work on the program. It was nearly finished, and once it was, I was planning on going to Lyoko in search of a new Info Orb, despite Sean and Tennent's aversion.<p>

Out my window, I noticed a commotion in the School Yard. It was hard for me to tell what was going on, because almost every kid from 6th-9th grade was there. I decided to see what it was about.

I went out my door, down the hall, through the stairs, down one more hall, and the last set of stairs, and out the dormitory doors.

After some inspection, I had determined what the commotion was. A girl named Kirsten Field was always building stuff. Every once in a while, she had a new "invention" to test. These "inventions" were always a must-see. As of yet, not one has failed to warp, twist, or otherwise pervert its main purpose. Usually, it was hilarious to watch how wrong things went. This was one such occasion.

The contraption was at least 10 feet wide, constructed mainly of wood. Other parts and unidentifiable items were placed precisely on the structure.

I decided to hang around and see what it would do. After a while, I found a position where I could see. I also noticed that all my friends were here.

Tyce sat in a tree with a grin on his face. That's not usually a good sign.

After a while, Kirsten held up her hands to beg for silence. We all quieted down.

"My latest invention," she started. "Will open a six-pack of soda through a series of complicated events. I call it... the SIX-PACK OPENER!"

I heard a cough. Needless to say, Kirsten wasn't good with names.

"Why does your machine have to be so complicated?" Someone asked.

"Because," she answered, "it looks cooler, and it's no fun to stick an arm on a motor and have it open soda." No one disagreed.

"Well then," she said. "I'll start the contraption by hitting this button." She pressed an appropriately large and red button that got the machine going.

The button moved a piece of metal that was holding a ball. The ball was now free to roll down a track and bowl down some plastic bottles. Several of the bottles were knocked off the platform, and into a basket below. Enough bottles fell in that the basket began to sink, causing an adjacent one to rise.

The second basket rose to a spar of wood, and the wood tipped the basket down, spilling water into a spiral track.

The contraption continued on, until finally, an engine started, and an arm began to move. On the end of it, were six prongs. These prongs were made to grab the tabs of the soda, and then to pull up, opening the soda. This did not happen though.

Instead, the motor coughed, and revved up. The arm slammed down at an alarming speed, and crushed the soda. Instead of just a little leak though, the soda exploded onto anyone within 10 feet of it.

I couldn't help laughing, especially since Sean and Tennent got soaked more than anyone. I noticed Tyce laughing too. I wondered which part of the machine was designed by him. The motor messing up or the soda having some extra chemical added to it or both.

I decided I would have to talk to him and discover what he did, although I doubted he would tell me anything.

I had had a nice break, so I headed back up to my room to finish the retrieval program. When I got back up, the screen was flashing an activated Tower alert!

_Rats, _I thought. Sean and Tennent wouldn't be available; they would surely be in the showers. I wasn't positive they'd be much help on Lyoko though.

I called them nonetheless. At least one of us needed to be on Earth ready to combat an attack, while two of us would not be enough on Lyoko. I hoped they would hurry.

I texted Brittany and Alyssa, and then I dashed off to the Factory.

* * *

><p>"What's the attack?" Brittany asked.<p>

"I don't know yet," I answered. "Since we haven't seen any ANAX activity, I'm worried that he could be draining another Tower."

"Are you able to tell by looking at the Tower's information? Last time, you knew he had drained it somehow," Alyssa asked.

"That's true," I told her. "But ANAX's distortion messes with the Tower, and I can't get any energy readings from it. The last time that I could take a reading was because it wasn't infected."

She seemed to understand.

"Anyway," I went on. "We need to get a move on. I told Sean and Tennent to stay on Earth and look out for an attack. Hopefully they'll be able to work together."

Sean and Tennent each returned my message with a text saying that they would. We might not have anything to work about on earth though.

I set the transfers up, and we were off. The Tower was in the Forest Sector. I didn't like that. The last time ANAX drained power from a Tower, it was also in the Forest.

Soon, we were on Lyoko. I had virtualized us directly in front of the black Tower. The activated one was close.

"Why'd you put us here?" Alyssa asked.

"I wanted to see what the Tower looked like," I told her. "The last reading I took showed that its energy was returning. If you look closely, you can see that the black is fading a little."

When they had seen the change, we set off at a jog in the direction of the Tower.

On the way, Brittany explained to me what was wrong with Sean and Tennent. She had managed to talk to Sean, and find out about what the problem was.

After about a minute, the Tower was in view. Brittany stopped talking. I had understood the majority of it.

On my radar, I picked a multitude of Monsters. Three of the unnamed ones, two Tarantulas, and a Krab waited for us. I informed the girls of our situation.

"We sure could use Sean and Tennent on this one," Alyssa said. I agreed, but I knew that wishing for it wasn't going to help anything.

"No time like the present," I said running off. My friends were close behind me.

I leaped into the air early. I wasn't in range to land on the Krab, but I knew it would distract them.

I misjudged the new Monsters' competence. They shot me right out of the air, landing me right near the Krab to be its plaything.

At least the distraction was made use of. Alyssa shot an energy field, and it impacted with the ANAX eye on the creature.

Brittany was stuck dodging the rapid fire of the Tarantulas, and I had my Krab to deal with.

It fired a few shots at me, and I blocked them. I jumped into the air, planning to land on top of it. Seeing my motion, it dodged to the side, and shot me down. The blast knocked me into a tree, of which the impact was so great, that it cost me 10 additional Life Points.

I looked down at my LI. Brittany was taking a beating.

_Those two Tarantulas might be more than she can handle, _I thought.

There wasn't too much I could do though. The Krab had me at every turn. Finally, I got an idea. I jumped up in a normal jump. Thinking that I was _leaping _the Krab went to one side. This time, I fell to the ground, and rolled forward, coming up underneath it. I jabbed upward.

It growled in defiance before it exploded.

The explosion distracted me, and a nameless monster took advantage of it. I was soon battered to the ground, and its blade took care of the rest of my Life Points.

When I woke up in a Scanner, I stumbled for the elevator.

When I got to the Lab, I saw the condition of the Lyoko Warriors. It wasn't good. There were still four monsters left. Two nameless and two Tarantulas. Neither Alyssa nor Brittany had more than twenty Life Points.

I called up Tennent. I didn't think there was any attack on Earth, so I figured I'd better get some reinforcements. They were soon on the way.

By the time Tennent got to the Factory, Brittany had been devirtualized. I quickly transferred him, and then Sean, for he arrived a few seconds later.

As Alyssa was devirtualized, Sean and Tennent dropped down from the sky. It was up to two quarrelling teens to save the day now.

* * *

><p>Sean and Tennent wasted no time. They leaped into action, matching each other's movements in superb teamwork. It was amazing to see how well the fought together.<p>

Sean threw a flurry of knives at a Tarantula, while from another direction, Tennent shot several Laser Arrows. It fell quickly. The same strategy killed the other Tarantula as well.

Sean drew his short sword, and engaged one of the nameless Monsters. While he had its attention focused on the top half of his body, he kicked out with his foot, knocking it over. Tennent swooped in and destroyed it.

He then went on, blasting another monster, while Sean lashed at it with is his whip. The Monster couldn't take the onslaught of blows, and it exploded.

The Tower was promptly deactivated. When it was though, we saw that this Tower was a gray color. It was clear that ANAX had still stolen some energy, but not as much as last time.

We'd have to take that for now.

* * *

><p>A few minutes later, we had gathered in the Lab. "Does anyone have a name for this new Monster?" Brittany asked.<p>

I didn't. At least, not any that didn't sound stupid.

"How about Klanker?" Tennent asked. "For the sound they make when they walk."

I thought it over. It was a little strange, but then, the other Monsters' names were strange too. It didn't sound that dumb, and it was already starting to stick.

It seemed as if the rest of us were having similar thoughts. With only a small amount of deliberation, we had christened it: the Klanker.

Sean and Tennent seemed to be getting along better. Maybe after they saw how well they worked together, it helped smooth things out. They worked out a system of teaching Smudge what he was and wasn't allowed to do. Sean also offered to spend some of his money on a scratching post for him.

Things were now more peaceful in our group.

The rest of the night was spent finishing my program, but I'm not sure what everyone else was doing.

After hearing several meows from the dorm across from me, I figured that they were probably playing with Smudge.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

I woke up early the next morning, before my alarm went off. I sighed. It looked like my good night's rest wasn't going to work. The clock said 5:00, and I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep again.

I turned my computer on, and it booted up with a quick beep. I entered my password, "Lyoko", and the screen changed into the retrieval program. I had forgotten to close it last night.

I didn't have much else to do, so I went over the last details of my program once more, and I ran a few more tests. Everything was working fine, so I set to work on decoding some of the SuperComputer's data.

I was able to modify an existing program for use on my LI. It was a small program, so it wasn't a big achievement, but still, I noticed how much easier programming was getting. I was starting to understand the dynamics of it.

I continued to work until 7 o'clock. After that, I saved the progress that I had made, and went to get ready. Under normal circumstances, I probably would have stayed in my room longer to work more, but I needed to inform Sean and Tennent about the completion of my program.

"Good morning, Sammy," Tennent said. I reiterated his greeting. "Guess what?" I asked him.

"What?"

"I've completed my program!"

"You mean the one with the Info Orbs?" Sean asked.

I nodded. "This afternoon, we should go try it out."

"I thought you said that you wouldn't need to test it on Lyoko," Tennent said.

"Sorry," I told him. "That wasn't what I meant. It works, but I want to see how _well _it works, and what it looks like running on Lyoko."

"Ah," Tennent said in understanding.

"We can tell the girls in class this morning," Sean proposed.

We didn't foresee any problems. Of course, we forgot one little detail. That detail is the mood Brittany and Alyssa usually are in the mornings.

* * *

><p>Alyssa hated mornings. Every morning, no matter how early you wake up, Rachel is always in the showers first. Somehow, she managed to get the key to the bathroom, and she locks everyone else out until she's done.<p>

Alyssa couldn't see how she managed to convince her father that she needed the whole place to herself. _Probably through some method of lying, _Alyssa thought.

She got up and went out to wait in line for the showers. This particular day however, Rachel took much longer. As in, an hour and a half longer.

By this time, everyone in line (which included Brittany and Alyssa) was quite agitated.

When Rachel finally opened the door, she flipped her hair in a prissy manner. She got more than a few snide comments as she walked back to her room.

_At least now the line will be moving, _Alyssa thought.

Despite the fact that every girl went as quick as they could, it took much too long for Alyssa. When she was finally ready for the day, she had missed Breakfast.

She stormed off to her first class, her stomach growling. She was more upset at herself for forgetting to eat, than Rachel for making everyone so far behind today.

When she got to class, she sat with Brittany and Sean.

"Where were you at breakfast?" Sean asked.

"I'd rather not talk about it," She said in a biting tone.

Sean turned to Brittany.

"Rachel held us up in the showers. You know she's got the key to them, right?"

Sean nodded sympathetically, but then stopped as if something dawned on him.

"Wait, if Rachel spent that long in the bathroom, she probably is out to get me today!"

Brittany agreed sadly.

"What does she think it's gonna do!" Sean asked exasperatedly. "Nothing she can do in the bathroom is going to make me think she's pretty," He said.

"Short of plastic surgery, you mean," Tennent intoned from behind them.

Alyssa still refused to be cheered up, even though Sean and Brittany laughed.

* * *

><p>That day, I struggled through Gym class. My mind was not focused, and even if it was, I am by no means an athlete.<p>

I would call myself a "Mathlete", which really just another way of saying, "nerd".

"Belpois!" Jim yelled. "You call that a push-up?" He stalked over to me. "C'mon! You gotta go lower than that! My _grandmother _can do better!"

Thus the tirade would continue, probably for the rest of the period. Earlier, we had told Alyssa and Brittany about our plan. We decided that at 4:00 we would head off to the Factory. This would give us some time to finish any homework.

After we had finished the warm-up, Jim lined us up at the track. Five laps was the goal.

Running, you could say, was my strongest suit. With my long legs, I could outdistance people early. I couldn't run for more than a minute without tiring though, so I would be quickly overtaken.

By the end of the first lap, I was in the front of the pack. After the second lap, I had fallen to almost last place. Third lap: I was well behind.

By the fourth, my lungs were killing me, and I collapsed halfway through the fifth. I had been overlapped by Tennent already.

Jim jogged over to me.

"Is that all you got?" He demanded. "You must keep _moving! _What would happen if you _had _to run? What if there was an emergency?" He wasn't going to let up.

"It is my job to prepare you for a day in which you might have to run much farther than you've run today. In order for you to be able to do that, you must _press for the goal until you've made it!"_

I couldn't really refute what he was saying. It was true.

I began to drag myself for the last 20 yards. Through some "encouragement" I pulled myself to my feet and crossed the finish line standing.

"Alright!" Jim said clapping his hands together. "Moving on!"

When the period was over, I was soaked in sweat. Tennent and Sean however, looked relatively fresh.

In any event, we finished the day of school. Afterwards, I studied for some tests until 3:45. After that, I slipped out of the school with Sean and Tennent.

We managed to get into the woods without encountering Jim or Rachel.

When we got to the Factory, I noticed that Brittany and Alyssa had beaten us there.

"Took you long enough," Alyssa said.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly. We weren't but a few minutes late. I knew it wouldn't be worth it to say that.

"Alright then," I said. "Are you ready to plunge into a digital universe?"

* * *

><p>"Transfer, Tennent! ... Transfer, Sean! ... Transfer, Alyssa!" I set up the trip to Lyoko, and input the coordinates. I had decided on the Ice Sector.<p>

"Scanner, Tennent! ... Scanner, Sean! ... Scanner, Alyssa!" I activated the Scanners, and they began to copy their DNA into digital form.

"Virtualization!" I said when the process was finished.

I then set a delayed virtualization for Brittany and me. A timer started from one minute and thirteen seconds, and I went down to the Scanners.

I stepped into the cabin, and the doors closed. A wave of light analyzed my atomic structure, and then an explosion of brightness altered my reality from Earth to Lyoko.

I felt the familiar feeling of being virtualized. I dropped down, and landed sitting like a cat.

"Ok, so where is the closest Info Orb?" Tennent asked.

"Twenty three degrees north," I told him. "It's about a two hundred and fifty feet ahead of us. I tried to put us closer, but it keeps moving around."

And without further delay, we set off. On Lyoko, I had more agility and stamina. For this, I was grateful.

I tracked the erratic movement of the Info Orb as best I could until we came in view of it. It appeared from behind an ice shelf.

"Is everyone ready for a chase?" Sean asked.

It didn't matter if we were or not, the fate of the planet depended on if we could collect the keys to Lyoko fast enough.

We followed the Orb around for about a minute, when something beeped on my LI. Five monsters were approaching!

"Guys, we have company!" I warned. "It looks like three Krabs and a couple of Bloks!"

We took up defensive positions as best we could. We were learning battle tactics, but we were learning slowly.

Tennent crouched down, ready to spring. As a Krab came into his sights he said, "I love this!" With that, he jumped up in the air, and fired three Laser Arrows at the Krab. One impacted the Eye, and it was all over for the monster.

"Fire!" A Blok cried.

Lasers leaped from the Bloks' eyes, peppering us. None of us were exceptional at blocking lasers yet, but we got out of that assault unscathed.

Having learned my lesson from last time, I leaped not at a Blok, but instead the wall of ice beside me. This confused the creature. When my feet hit the ice, I pushed off again, propelling myself toward the Blok.

The maneuver _almost _worked the way I wanted it too. I had meant to land on top of the Blok, but instead, I landed awkwardly in front of it.

Still, my surprise attack was enough. I destroyed the monster with a quick swipe of my claws.

I saw that the rest of the Lyoko Warriors were fairing just as well. In short order, the monsters had been vanquished.

The fight had moved with the Info Orb, so we didn't have far to run in order to catch up.

We saw as soon as we did that a troop of Klankers had beaten us to it.

"Bring the Orb down!" One of them announced.

"Huh," Tennent said. "It's weird how their voices are different, while _all _the other monsters have the same voice."

"You're right," I told him. This was actually a significant piece of information, but I didn't realize it at the time.

Seeing how the monsters moved gave me an idea. They stayed in a triangle pattern. This made me think of how well a rocket would work against them when they were all bunched up like that.

I hadn't used my rockets much for the sole reason that I had trained myself to ration them to an unreasonable degree. I had no program for reloading them, and even if I could make one, it might take too long to reload to be worth it.

In this case though, I explained my plan to my friends. They smiled.

"I think this will work," Alyssa said, beginning to cheer up. Clearly the prospect of Klankers being beat to smithereens appealed to her.

When Sean gave the signal, we all jumped upon the Klankers from different angles. I rolled off to one side, and didn't move. The others, continued to move around, and fired their weapons at them. The Klankers did a good job of blocking those attacks though.

When they were distracted, I called a rocket up. I held my arm up, mimicking Tennent in the way he fired Laser Arrows. I took careful aim, and then let the rocket fly.

My aim was close enough. It struck a Klanker, and all three disappeared in a digital fireball. The explosion was amazing. I can find no words to explain it.

With all the monsters gone, Brittany managed to grab the Info Orb. "Hurry!" She said. "Run your program before ANAX shows up!"

I didn't see his energy allocating yet, buy I had no doubt that it would. I quickly launched the retrieval program.

Five points of white light appeared above Brittany. They were the same color as the Info Orb, a white and sparkly color.

The points of light expanded until they were the size of an Info Orb. Each ball of light emitted a beam of energy into the center of the five of them. That point was directly over the Info Orb.

Suddenly, a beam of power spiked down into the Orb. It "sucked" the Orb into the center of the five balls of light, and then the light dissolved into the center. An explosion followed, and my LI beeped, affirming the data transfer was successful.

"I take it by the grin on your face that it works," Sean said.

"Bingo."

After a while of hard programming, my work had paid off.

* * *

><p>When we got back to the Factory, I ran the analysis program for the Info Orb. "Soon we'll find out what's on this thing," I told my friends.<p>

In a minute, it was done. I saw that this time, it did not contain a Key to Lyoko at all! Of course, there was no reason why it couldn't carry something else.

I told my friends of my discovery.

"Then what is it?" Brittany asked.

"Hang on, I'm working on it," I said typing.

I figured it out. It matched one of the encoding matrices from the SuperComputer's programs! This would assist me greatly in decoding any programs that used this coding matrix.

I told my friends about this.

After a while, we went back to the School.

On the way back, I thought about the Info Orb. It was bugging me how a coding matrix would be found in an Info Orb, because Orbs, by their digital structure, could only carry pure Lyoko data.

_How could there be data from Jeremy's codes from pure Lyoko data? _I wondered.

Of course, the only solution was that it wasn't Jeremy's code to begin with. I would discover more about this later.

* * *

><p>Our expedition had only taken about an hour, so it was still light out when we were back at Kadic.<p>

Almost before we were on the campus, Rachel spotted Sean.

"Oh Sean my dear, I've been looking for you the whole day!" Sean was much less enthused.

"You wasted your time," he told her.

"But Sean, I really wanted us to spend the evening together! I've got a lot of stuff planned out, and it would be really fun!" She pleaded.

"Since when do I _want _to go out with you?" Sean asked.

An argument ensued.

In the end, Rachel stalked away. She muttered, "Fine! Next time I would be so nice about things..."

Unfortunately for Sean, I failed to note the significance of this. We would pay for it later.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Early the next morning, I woke up to try and implement the decoding matrix. I struggled with it for a while, and then got up to go for a walk, in an attempt to clear my head.

The sun was just poking over the horizon. The air was crisp, and the cold gave me a bounce in my step. The birds were chirping softly. It was nice.

I breathed in the fresh air, and let it out in a puff of vapor. I relaxed for a little bit. Hopefully it would help me not get so frustrated with my program.

As I walked, I got a weird feeling. Something told me to be on my guard today, for a terrible event was going to occur.

I brushed it off. Thinking like that wasn't going to help anyone.

After a few minutes, I went back inside. I still had about a half hour to work before it was time for breakfast.

As I walked up the stairs, the strange feeling came back. This time, it wasn't dismissed as easily.

Because of my preoccupation, I made little progress on my program. I was having a lot of trouble implementing it. I was beginning to wonder if I would be able to do it right.

Time did not stand still for me. Eventually, the time came for breakfast, and unless I wanted to go hungry, I had better not miss it.

I met Sean and Tennent in the hall, and greeted them.

"You don't look so good," Tennent commented after a few seconds. "Is something bothering you?" He asked.

I shook my head. "Nah," I told him. "It's nothing to worry about. I've just got a really strange feeling about today."

"Don't worry about it," Sean told me. "It's probably nothing."

He was talking sense, but I still had that feeling like a pesky fly in the back of my head.

We met Alyssa and Brittany at breakfast, and then went off to class. Throughout the day, Rachel stalked us. She never said anything. She never did anything. She just followed.

At this point, I believe she was still formulating a plan. It wouldn't be until later that she found what she was looking for.

After school, I went to my room to work some more. After an hour or so, Brittany and Alyssa came in.

"Making any progress?" Alyssa asked.

"Not much," I sighed.

"For some reason, I can't use the code matrix properly. It's all there, but it seems to be missing something..." I struggled to explain.

"I think the main problem is that I'm dealing with Lyoko data. It's complicated to explain how, but it's different from the other programming I've done so far. It's a lot like the Keys to Lyoko, but I don't understand how to make it work."

"Is there any way we can help?" Brittany asked.

"Possibly," I told her. "If you are familiar with advanced algorithms used in matrices for the encoding of data."

"Oh," She said.

"Maybe you can try to talk it out to us," Alyssa suggested. "I know we won't understand, but if you speak aloud, it might help you think better."

I thought it over. I didn't think it would really help, but I knew she was trying to be nice in making the offer, so I accepted.

"Sure," I said.

They sat on my bed and listened as I talked.

I first listed several problems I was having. I went on to explain the solutions that I had tried so far, and why they didn't work. That is, if I _knew _why they didn't work. For some, I had no idea why it didn't click with the rest of the program. That was probably what was stopping me.

"Then maybe you shouldn't do anything else until you figure out why those solutions didn't work," Brittany said. "Knowing what's wrong with them may give you a clue as to the correct solution."

"Hey," I said turning my chair around. "That's not a bad idea!"

She smiled.

Of course, it was easier said than done. I implemented the new data along with my program, and launched it. As it was running, I launched the analysis so it could watch it as it ran.

This slowed the process down a bit, so it would take a while to finish. I sat back to watch.

Suddenly, a window popped up on my screen. An activated Tower!

_Not again, _I groaned to myself. ANAX was getting awfully active. I really didn't like that.

"ANAX alert!" I said to Alyssa and Brittany. They jumped up, ready to go.

"Wait a second," I said looking closer at my screen. "This Tower isn't activated by ANAX! The digital signature shows Lyoko!"

"Which means what exactly?" Alyssa asked.

"Sorry. I mean that the energy field activating the Tower is not foreign to Lyoko. It is somehow... _natural_," I explained.

"And what does that mean?" Brittany asked.

"I can't explain it any better than that. It doesn't make much sense to me either!"

We rushed out the door. My programming would have to wait. I sent the emergency text to Sean and Tennent, and put them out of my mind.

We arrived at the Factory out of breath. I hopped into the seat, and Alyssa and Brittany stood beside me and watched windows open and close as I tried to figure out this new development.

"Well?" Alyssa asked after a minute.

"Nothing new..." I said. "Wait!" A window popped up.

"I'm detecting a human on Lyoko! I don't recognize the digital signature!"

"That's impossible, isn't it?" Brittany asked.

"Not anymore," I said. "We'll have to go to Lyoko to check it out. The activated Tower seems to correspond with this life form!"

This was a baffling discovery to me. I was blown away.

Not soon enough for me, Sean and Tennent arrived. I explained our situation to them.

"You're kidding!" Sean said.

"Sorry, I'm not."

His mouth hung.

"How can you be sure this is real?" Tennent asked.

"Why don't we go to Lyoko and see?" I asked in response.

No further discussion was necessary. I launched the procedure. I had detected the Tower in the Mountain Sector, so I set our coordinates there.

Soon, we stood on Lyoko, looking at a strange sight.

"What is up with that Tower?" I asked.

"How should we know?" Sean asked me. "You're the genius."

I shrugged. I went back to staring at the Tower.

It was shrouded in a purple aura. It was a very dark purple. I watched as the fog swirled around and around. There was something alluring about it.

"Let me launch an analysis of the Tower," I said.

"You can do that from here?" Tennent asked.

"Of course!" I said. I made it seem like it was obvious, when in actuality, I had only just decoded the program.

I started the program up on the LI, and then I aimed for the Tower. A bright beam of energy shot out of my mechanical forearm and encompassed the Tower briefly. After a few seconds, the beam drew itself back into the LI.

"It's for sure now; the life I detected is in this Tower. Its energy is what is turning the Tower purple. I can't make any more guesses until we go inside," I reported.

"Well what's stopping us?" Brittany asked.

"Nothing," I said. "Let's go."

Being the unofficial leader of the group, I found myself ushered to the front. I walked into the Tower cautiously.

When I phased through, I saw a small girl sitting in the center of the Tower.

She stood up in surprise. "Who-who are you?" She asked with wide eyes.

I saw her more clearly now that she was standing up. She had short light purple hair, with matching eyes. She stood only about 5 feet tall, and I guessed her to be 12 or so. She wore a purple and white tunic-like garment.

"Don't be afraid!" I told her. "We mean you no harm."

She stopped backing up, but she still looked scared.

"Can you help me figure out what I'm doing here, and who I am?" She asked.

"Of course!" Sean said. Like me, he was awfully anxious to be a hero.

"What's going on?" The girl asked.

We began to explain to her about Lyoko.

"What about Earth? I remember living someplace called that. Have you ever heard of it?" She asked.

"Heard of it?" Tennent asked. "We live there!"

"You don't live here?" She asked confusedly.

I stepped in. "Sorry," I apologized. "I guess were not doing a very good job of explaining ourselves."

We started again, telling her our names.

When we had finished, Tennent asked, "What's your name?"

She paused a bit before answering, "I can't remember one." Her shoulders slumped, as if she was thinking of what other stuff she couldn't remember.

"Well," Tennent said. "We need something to call you. Do you like the name Hannah?"

She struck a thoughtful pose. "Yes!" She said. "I like that!"

"In any case," I said, "we should get you to Earth. This way, you'll be safe, and then maybe we can find out what happened to you."

We were all in agreement. We were _all_ too eager to be heroes it looked like.

I ran the materialization program for Sean, Brittany, and Hannah. I didn't want Hannah to be alone when she got to the Factory.

Sean and Brittany disappeared from Lyoko. Hannah did not. That should have been my first clue.

"I'm getting some type of reading on my screen!" I said. "For some reason, I can't materialize Hannah!"

"What are you saying?" Sean asked.

"I'm saying that I can't materialize Hannah! It says there is some type of interference! I can't figure out what kind though..."

"Can you fix it?" Tennent asked me.

"Possibly."

"How much time would it take?"

"I don't know... It could take anywhere from a day to a year. There are too many variables!"

I turned to Hannah. "Do you mind if I run an analysis of your digital structure?" I asked her.

"I guess..." She replied. "If you think it will help."

I got her to stand in the center of the Tower, and I launched a program. A wave of light scanned her up and down, and then the analysis was finished.

After a few seconds of looking at the data, I said, "Woah."

"Woah what?" Hannah asked.

"Woah I'm getting a lot of data," I replied. I'll have to analyze this on the computer at the Factory.

We exited the Tower, and Hannah followed us.

As soon as I could see again, I was met with horror. Two MegaTanks, three Tarantulas, and four Bloks waited for us.

"Run!" I screamed wide-eyed.

The monsters opened fire. I leaped high to avoid the blasts. Sean got devirtualized from a torrent of lasers.

When I landed, I was shot down by a MegaTank.

* * *

><p>By the time I got back to the Lab, Tennent and Hannah had taken shelter in another Tower.<p>

"How'd you survive that mess of monsters?" I asked Tennent.

"Aw, you know me. The luckiest guy around!" I could hear a grin in his voice.

"Anyway, I'm gonna need to figure out what this data means, and then I'm gonna need to find a way to get the materialization to work. It's going to take some time too."

"Do you think you'd be alright by yourself in this Tower?" Tennent asked Hannah.

"I think so." She said back.

"Alright," I said. "I'll bring you in Tennent. Then I'll have to get started."

* * *

><p>I started by scanning the data in the analysis with the rest of the data on the SuperComputer. I knew most of it was in code, but I was still hoping there would be something there that could help.<p>

There was. By the time the scan had finished, my friends had left to go back to the school. I didn't mind. When I got into a concentration mode, I didn't really notice the fact that I was alone in an old, dark, abandoned Factory.

The digital signature of Hannah was very close to Aelita's. It was not as close as Alyssa was to Aelita, but in an abstract way, it was closer.

The DNA sequence code didn't match Aelita's at all, unlike Alyssa, who shared a similar DNA code. But for some reason, the SuperComputer said that it was an exact match. I knew there had to be a reason for this.

With some digging, I found a program called Code: EARTH. It was encoded of course, but there were some notes on it. They were in a much less complex code.

Despite that fact, it still took me 3 ½ hours to decode it. The information that I found was _amazing._

This program, Code EARTH, had been used to materialize Aelita for the first time. I couldn't figure out all the details, but it seemed to me that whatever was stopping Aelita from being materialized was the same thing stopping Hannah!

I opened a communication line with the Tower and told Hannah about the news.

"That's great!" She said. "Do you think I'll be able to come to Earth soon?"

"Um... I don't think so," I said. Her countenance fell. "It's just that the program is encoded. It will take me a completely unknown amount of time to decode it."

This didn't really help cheer her up any. I couldn't say I really expected it to, as it was little more than technical gibberish.

As I set about decoding the program, I brought up the data from the latest Info Orb. I smiled.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Sean and Tennent walked back to their room.

"I gotta feed Smudge," Tennent said, opening the door.

To his surprise, Smudge was not at his usual spot, Tennent's bed. Nor was he under the bed, or in the drawer, or on the desk. In fact, he wasn't in the room at all.

"This is terrible!" Tennent said. "What could have happened to him?" The door had been securely closed, and the window too. The door was not locked however.

After turning the room upside down, Sean found a note in the drawer where Smudge's stuff was kept. It read:

"Dear Sean,

If you don't want my father finding out about this cat you've been hiding, then meet me in the Park at 6:00.

Love,

Rachel"

"This is awful!" Sean exclaimed. Tennent snatched the paper our of Sean's hands. He read over it quickly.

"Oh she is going to _pay,_" He growled. "Kidnapping my cat? She has no right!" He was quite furious. In a short amount of time, he had grown to like Smudge very much.

"What are we gonna do?" Sean asked. "We only have 15 minutes before I'm supposed to meet Rachel!"

They thought through every possible option. Only two solutions presented themselves. 1) Tennent would give up Smudge, and probably take a few hours of detention too. 2) Sean would have to go out with Rachel and come up with a way to save himself after he convinced her not to tell her father about Smudge.

Tennent got down on his knees.

"Don't start that," Sean said rolling his eyes.

Tennent did start though. Tears began to form in his eyes as he said, "Sean, you're the only one who can save my cat. I know it's a big sacrifice for you, but-"

"Enough already!" Sean said. "I'll work something out- but only because it's you."

Tennent hopped up and hugged Sean. Sean pushed him off.

"Don't you think for one second that that crying act was what convinced me. I'm only doing this cause I'm your friend."

"Whatever you say..." Tennent replied with a grin.

* * *

><p>At the Factory I was looking at the data from the Info Orb. Earlier, I had had a lot of trouble trying to implement it. An idea had struck me, and I was trying to put it to use.<p>

Lyoko functioned in a strange way. I didn't really understand how it all worked, but I understood enough to know that some programs were pretty weird.

This specific program seemed to be a one-time use program. Earlier, I had treated it as an aid in decoding, rather than a decoder. Looking over the data seemed to prove me correct.

It took me a couple of hours of studying before I was ready to start any processes. Once I was, I began the decoding.

After five minutes of watching, I saw that there was little more I could do tonight. It would take a long time to decode, and I could just let the computer run it all night. If I was lucky, by morning it would be done.

There would, of course, be no such luck.

* * *

><p>Several Hours Earlier<p>

* * *

><p>Sean met Rachel at the entrance to the woods. Tennent had gone up to talk to Alyssa and Brittany, to see if they had any advice on how to settle the situation.<p>

"I knew you'd come, Sean, honey," Rachel said running up to him.

Without preamble, Sean demanded, "What have you done with Smudge?"

"Ah," Rachel said. "So it has a name..."

"Where is he?" Sean repeated.

"Somewhere safe," Rachel replied. "Somewhere where you'll never find him." She smirked.

"Now, if you were willing to... hang out... with me for a while, I might be willing to overlook the cat." She informed.

"That's blackmail!" Sean yelled.

"Well honey, there's really not too much you can do about it- if you want to keep your cat."

Sean almost blurted out that it wasn't his cat. But he restrained himself. _The less she knows, the better, _he thought.

"How long?" He demanded with a sour look on his face.

"With that attitude it'll take at least a year," Rachel said. "And besides," She went on. "Once you get to know me better, you might actually enjoy it."

_Yeah, right. _Sean thought. _I'd rather date a giraffe than Rachel._

"Fine, fine," He said holding up his hands in surrender. "You win."

"Great!" She clapped her hands together. "We can start tonight!"

Thus she proceeded to drag Sean on a walk through the woods. Most of the time was spent extolling herself.

* * *

><p>"What can we do?" Tennent asked. He had just finished explaining to Alyssa and Brittany what had happened.<p>

"Well first we need to figure out how Rachel even _knew _about Smudge. That might give a clue as to where she is hiding him."

Tennent thought that over. "I don't follow that logic," he said.

"It's because you're a guy," Alyssa said smiling.

"Ha ha, that's so funny I forgot how to laugh." Tennent told her.

"Tell me, Tennent," Brittany began. "Did you tell Philip and Julian about Smudge?"

"No."

"Is it possible that one of the other boys who knew about him accidentally let something slip?"

"I suppose..."

"Do you see where I'm going with this?" She asked.

"And if Phillip found out about Smudge, he would go straight to Rachel!" Tennent exclaimed.

"So we should start by searching Phillip's room," Alyssa said.

"Alright, but it'll have to wait until tomorrow. Knowing Phillip, he'll be studying until bedtime. I don't think we'll be able to get him out of there."

They nodded.

* * *

><p>Tennent, Sean, and I didn't get much sleep that night. Tennent was worried about Smudge. Sean was worried about Rachel. I was worried about ANAX attacking, targeting Hannah or the decoding program.<p>

The night passed slowly, but when it was over, I rushed over to the Factory to see if my program had finished running. It hadn't.

Based on the size of Code: EARTH, and the rate of which the decoding was running, I guessed I still had a few hours left to go.

I talked to Hannah for a little bit, telling her of my idea. She was very happy, but slightly disappointed as well. The decoding would probably finish during school, and since I didn't really know what time it would finish, it wouldn't be worth skipping anything to come to the Factory.

That meant that Hannah would have to wait through another school day, all alone in the Tower, unable to venture out because of the monsters.

I bid her good-bye, and then went off to Kadic. I ended up sprinting to get to class in time, but I made it work by eating breakfast on the run.

During school, my friends and I exchanged stories. I learned about the trouble with Smudge, and they learned about my victory with Hannah.

"How about we meet at the Factory as soon as school is over, and we can materialize Hannah," I proposed.

Sean and Tennent grimaced.

"What?" I asked.

"Is it possible that it could wait until later?" Sean asked. "I have to be with Rachel after school."

"And I've got to look for Smudge!" Tennent added.

I was about to answer, saying that we couldn't postpone it too long, when Alyssa beat me to it.

"Put yourself in Hannah's place," She said. "She's already found out she has to wait longer than she thought, she's trapped in the Tower, and still confused about her past. I don't think we should wait any."

Sean and Tennent sighed in unison. "You're right... Go on without us," Tennent said. "We'll be able to catch up with you tonight."

"Right," I said. "That's decided."

* * *

><p>When school was over, I ran to the Factory. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying very much attention to my surroundings, and on the way out of Kadic, I crashed into Micah Andrews, bowling him over.<p>

"Belpois," He growled.

"Uh... Sorry! I didn't see you there; I really didn't mean to knock you over... Really! C'mon man..." Micah was already past the stage of listening. Especially not to me stuttering.

Despite the number of monsters I had obliterated on Lyoko, I felt no more confident fighting on Earth than I had before I discovered the SuperComputer.

I dodged his first swipe, but a second fist slammed into cheek. I crashed to the ground.

Luckily, Freddy Snow came to my rescue.

"Micah!" He said. "Listen, I'm sure it was an accident, right, Sammy?"

I nodded.

"You don't need to get all worked up about it," Freddy said.

With a grunt, Micah walked away.

"Sorry about your face," Freddy apologized.

"Hey," I told him. "Don't worry about it. It's not your fault."

"Well," he said, helping me up. "It would appear that way."

_What does he mean by that? _I wondered.

Freddy shrugged it off. "Will you be alright?" He asked.

"Yeah," I said. "I'll be fine."

He walked off, and I started toward the Factory again.

_I'll never understand that, _I thought.

* * *

><p>"Does the bruise on your face have anything to do with why you're late?" Brittany asked.<p>

"As a matter of fact, it does," I answered. "But I'd rather not talk about it."

"I'll take that," She said laughing.

Even though she hadn't said anything, I knew Alyssa found this funny as well.

I hopped into the chair and looked at the interface. With a glance I saw what I was looking for.

"Great!" I said. "All systems go."

Alyssa and Brittany congratulated me on figuring out the program.

I was just configuring the transfers when a window popped up.

"Oh no!" I cried. "An activated Tower!"

* * *

><p>Tennent slunk through the hallways of the dormitory. He peeked into Phillip's room. All clear.<p>

He opened the door fully and walked in.

"Smudge, are you in here?" He called. No answer.

_Idiot, _Tennent thought. _Cats _never _come when you call them._

He searched the place as neatly as he could. After 15 minutes, he gave up. It would be hard to hide a cat in a small dorm so that 15 minutes of searching would not produce it.

As he slipped out of the room, his phone rang.

"Hello?" He answered.

"Tennent!" It was Sammy. "ANAX has launched an attack! I need you to stay at the school and keep an eye on things, OK?"

"Whatever you say, chief."

He turned ended the call.

Tennent turned around and walked out the door. He had one more place he could look for his cat.

* * *

><p>Sean sat on Rachel's bed as she rummaged through her music chips, trying to find the right one. She finally picked out a chip with one of RapidFflow's albums on it.<p>

"You like the music?" She asked.

"Actually, I do," Sean replied. "RapidFflow is my favorite group."

"Really?" Rachel asked. "They're mine too! See, we have more in common than you think!"

Sean groaned, and put his face in his hands.

When his phone rang, he jumped up.

"Yes?" He said into the phone.

"Sean, activated Tower! We need you on Lyoko. Do you think you can get away from Rachel?"

"It shouldn't be a problem, especially since you've reminded me. Thanks Dad."

He hung up.

"Sorry Rachel," Sean said. "That was my dad reminding me to study for my classes. I really should be going."

"Oh..." She said.

There wasn't much she could do. She didn't have the authority to countermand Sean's father's orders. Of course, she had no idea that it was not his father calling.

With a grateful heart, Sean dashed down the hall. He ran to the Factory.

* * *

><p>I transferred Alyssa, Brittany, and myself to the Mountain Sector. Luckily, the activated Tower was in the vicinity of Hannah's Tower, so we could stop by and tell her before dashing off.<p>

We could have just told her from the Factory, but I preferred to tell her in person.

It seemed as if XANA knew that. The same monsters we had encountered earlier were still outside Hannah's Tower. Undoubtedly, there would be additional monsters waiting 200 yards away guarding ANAX's Tower.

The monsters wasted no time, so we couldn't either. The moment we set foot on Lyoko, the place exploded with action.

The two MegaTanks kept a steady rate of fire in cadence. Between them sat the Tarantulas, also firing a torrent of lasers. The Bloks advanced from either side, boxing us in.

At this range, I could do nothing, except fire a rocket or two. If things kept going at the rate they were, I would need to.

Alyssa and Brittany did their best, and took out a monster each. Alyssa killed a Blok with several Energy Fields, and Brittany destroyed a Tarantula with a well-aimed fan.

I couldn't take the feeling of helplessness anymore. I called a rocket up, and launched it at the remaining Tarantula. In a brilliant explosion, it vanished.

"Sammy," Sean said over the microphone. "I'm here! Can you transfer me?"

"Sure thing," I said jumping high to avoid a blast from a MegaTank.

Brittany turned to me. "I'll cover you," she said.

I nodded my thanks.

I launched to process as Brittany deflected as many bolts as she could. I saw at least one flash past her guard and into her shoulder.

"Dodge!" She yelled. "I leaped to the left to dodge a sheet of laser yellow laser.

"It's alright, I'm finished!" I said hitting the enter key. Sean's body began to form above us.

As soon as he landed, he rolled to avoid the lasers.

"How are you doing?" he asked.

"Ah, you know me," I said. "Same old, same old."

A shot caught me in the stomach and sent me flying backwards.

"That bad, huh?" Sean asked with a ghost of a smile.

* * *

><p>Tennent looked through the north end of the park. He was thinking that maybe Rachel had tied Smudge up somewhere.<p>

Too late, he realized that he had forgotten about ANAX's attack. He heard a strange crackling noise behind him, and he turned around. A giant ball of electricity loomed.

"Aagh!" He screamed.

He dashed away, but you can't really outrun electricity.

_*Zap!*_

A bolt of power struck through Tennent, felling him. He rolled to his feet quickly, and jumped up a tree. He grabbed and broke off a branch, and then jumped out.

The next bolt of electricity that followed, he blocked with the wood.

It protected him from the blast, but was incinerated.

He looked down at the ashes that used to be a branch.

_Rats! _He thought, running away again.

* * *

><p>On Lyoko, things were going well. Actually, let me rephrase that. On Lyoko, we were surviving.<p>

The two MegaTanks and remaining Blok would not let us through. The only positive side to this was that they didn't seem to be having any more luck hitting us than we were having trying to hit them.

Brittany dove out of the way of a blast from a MegaTank, and whirled her fan at it. It exploded in a shower of digital sparks.

"Nice one," I said to her.

"We're not out of the woods yet," She replied.

Soon, the monsters were destroyed, and surprisingly, we all had more than half our Life Points left.

We entered the Tower that Hannah was in.

"Hi!" She said. "Is it time?" She asked.

"Sadly, no," I said. "ANAX has activated a Tower, and we have to deactivate it. Hopefully Tennent is on top of things on Earth, but we don't know."

She understood a little about how Towers worked. We had briefly sketched how they worked when we first met her.

"Anyway," Sean said. "We need to get going. We were just stopping by to tell you that, so you wouldn't be in the dark."

"I'm coming with you," Hannah said, her jaw set.

We couldn't waste time arguing. We simply couldn't afford the delay.

"C'mon," Alyssa said.

We reached the Tower, and found no resistance.

_Maybe ANAX didn't have enough power to make more monsters right now, _I thought.

"Hang on," Hannah said. "I'm getting a weird feeling. Could you let me try to deactivate the Tower?"

We all looked at her in confusion.

After a few seconds, I said, "I can't see why not. If you can't figure it out, then one of us can do it. This could help us figure out who you really are."

My friends nodded.

Hannah ran off to enter the Tower.

* * *

><p>Tennent found that he had run all the way back to Kadic. He hadn't meant to, but his sense of direction led him back there by default.<p>

Now he heard screams of kids and adults alike as the electric monster began zapping people.

As he jumped to avoid a bolt, he thought to himself, _I hope the other Lyoko Warriors are having better luck than I am._

* * *

><p>We were. Hannah exited the newly deactivated Tower.<p>

"You did it!" Brittany exclaimed.

"I can hardly believe it!" Sean added.

I was busy thinking. Something bugged me about how these events had unfolded. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I knew something was up.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's notes: So<strong> **what are your theories on Hannah? This is a very interesting and important character, but right now - before you read another chapter - I'd like to know what you think is going to happen. Thanks for reading!**


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

"Return to the Past now," I said entering the code. We had elected to do a return, since we didn't know what had happened to Tennent. Also, a return in time would give Tennent another chance to lock the door to his room to keep Smudge safe.

When the white wave had finished reversing time, I found myself in my room.

I went to check on Sean and Tennent, and sure enough, Smudge was safe back with them.

"I still wonder where Rachel was hiding him," Tennent said stroking his cat.

"We may never know," I told him. "The important thing is that you learned a lesson, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I have."

"I think we'll _all _be thankful for that!" Sean said laughing.

* * *

><p>Today was the day that we would materialize Hannah! I had gotten over my ominous feeling from earlier. I chalked it up to anxiety about Hannah's past, especially how she knew how to deactivate Towers.<p>

The day dragged on. When we had made it through our last class, I gathered my friends.

"You ready to get Hannah to Earth?" I asked them.

"Yep!" Alyssa said.

"You're awfully enthusiastic," Brittany said.

"What's wrong with that?" Alyssa asked.

"I'm not sure... Something about all this is making me uneasy," She said with a frown.

_So I'm not the only one, _I thought. Against my will, my misgivings rushed back.

"So..." Tennent said. "Are we going or not?"

"C'mon," I said, heading for the Factory.

We went through the boiler room, and into the sewers. From there, we got to the bridge that led to the Factory.

We swung down the ropes that hung from the ceiling. The stairs had long since crumbled away.

We piled into the elevator, and Brittany, who was closest, hit the button that would take us to the Lab.

When the elevator opened, we walked over to the computer.

First, I contacted Hannah. Her communication window was in the top right corner of the screen.

I opened the Code: EARTH program, and then set up a transfer with it. I explained what I was doing.

"I don't fully understand how this program works," I started. "I'm transferring the data to the Tower we first found Hannah in. From there, I can run the program directly from the Tower."

"Can't you do it from here?" Sean asked.

"I'm sure it's possible," I told him. "But it would be much easier to do it from Lyoko."

He shrugged.

We headed to Lyoko. I virtualized Alyssa, Brittany, and Sean first, and then Tennent and myself.

"The Tower is 20 feet in front of us," I said pointing to the purple Tower.

We raced off. Again, there were no monsters prohibiting us from entering the Tower. It was weird. Just before we entered the Tower, I stopped.

"Does anyone else think it's weird that there are no monsters?" I asked.

"You're right," Brittany said. "There weren't any monsters at the last Tower either."

"But still," Sean intoned. "There were monsters for us to fight, just not directly in front of the Tower."

"Either way," I said, "We should proceed with caution. I'm not sure what ANAX has up his sleeve."

That said, we entered the Tower to find Hannah waiting for us.

"Are you ready?" She asked us.

"Whenever you are," Tennent said.

"Alright, Hannah, you and I need to go up to the top of the Tower. From there, I can launch the process.

When we were both up there, I opened the interface, and began setting up the program. Hannah stood to one side.

The program was ready to launch. Just as my finger was hovering over the "Run" button, a warning flashed up. ANAX was trying to activate the Tower! His symbol flashed a deep blue on the screen.

"Uh... Is that supposed to happen?" Hannah asked.

"No!" I replied.

From below us, I heard, "Is everything alright, Einstein?" Alyssa asked.

"Quite the opposite," I told her. "If ANAX activates this Tower, he could delete the Code: EARTH program!"

"That can't be good," Sean said.

Hannah was looking at the screen. "I've got another funny feeling," She said. "Can I try something?" She asked.

I stepped aside. Hannah placed her hand directly over the eye of ANAX. Soon, the eye began to pulse, and degenerate. In a matter of seconds, the eye had dissolved away. ANAX's presence was gone. Or so I thought.

"The Keys to Lyoko..." I whispered. "Hannah! I think you possess the Keys to Lyoko!"

"What makes you say that?"

"Well first of all, your digital signature is very similar to Aelita's in a way I can't understand. I bet it is because both you and Aelita have the Keys to Lyoko!"

"Also," I went on. "Up until now, I didn't think it was possible to prevent ANAX from activating a Tower. A Key-holder would logically be able to stop him, since ANAX doesn't have his own Keys!"

"But what does this mean for you?" She inquired.

"I'm positive that if we can get you to Earth, I can take the Keys from you digital signature via a Scanner!"

"You mean... you'll be able to destroy ANAX and XANA with him?"

"I think so... Yes!" I replied. I was ecstatic.

Immediately, I turned and ran the program. Big mistake.

A beam of energy erupted from the interface into my LI. I staggered backwards in surprise. The beam still connected me to the Tower's interface. After a few seconds, the beam dissipated, and my LI was crackling with electricity.

I looked at Hannah. She no longer looked like an innocent little girl anymore. Her pupils had been replaced by the eye of ANAX!

With a grin a victory she said, "I have succeeded!" The digital sound of her voice creeped me out.

A blast of dark purple energy exploded from Hannah's hands, knocking me backwards. I slammed into the Tower's wall, and slid down.

My friends rushed to my side.

Hannah descended, and then blasted us all out of the Tower before anything could be done.

I shook my head to clear it from the impact. I looked down, and noticed my LI was crackling a whole lot more.

When Hannah exited the Tower, I could no longer recognize her. Her light purple and white tunic had turned into a long dress. It was so dark purple it looked almost black. I noticed that her pupils were no shaped like the eye of XANA.

I looked at the Tower. It was blood-red. That sent a shiver through me.

When Hannah spoke, it was not in her normal voice, nor was it the clean digital voice I had heard earlier. It was twisted, deranged voice, like that of evil itself.

"You Are Weak!" She said. "I will _not _be defeated again!" She cried.

"Uh... Insert scary music here," Tennent said.

Without warning, my LI exploded! Data bits flew everywhere.

Hannah then dissolved into a cloud of purple smoke, and electricity poured out of the smoke into each of us, devirtualizing us.

* * *

><p>When I woke from my state of unconsciousness, I found myself in the Scanner room. My comrades were just coming to their senses as well.<p>

"Does anyone know what just happened?" Tennent asked wearily.

I staggered to my feet. "There's only one way to find out," I said. "C'mon, let's get to the lab."

We got into the elevator, and it carried us up.

Checking for activated Towers took top priority. Thankfully, none were. The ones that had been activated, ANAX must have shut down.

I reported this to my friends.

"So what was that big explosion?" Alyssa asked.

"That was my LI exploding," I answered.

"What?" Brittany exclaimed.

"That's right," I said. I opened a model of my Lyoko Avatar, and sure enough, the LI was gone.

"Can't you reprogram it?" Sean asked.

"I don't think so. ANAX would have made sure of that with a virus or something. I'll try, but I'm not expecting results."

"So the _whole thing _was a trap?" Tennent asked. "With the purple Towers, and Hannah, and everything?"

"It looks like it," I said.

"I have a question," Sean intoned.

"Go," I prompted.

"It seems like that was an awful lot of trouble to go to just to take out your LI. Wouldn't ANAX want to do some more damage with a scheme as elaborate as that last one?"

I had to think about this before I gave an answer. As I thought, a solution came to me.

"I'm not sure if you realize what ANAX achieved, Sean. You see, if I don't have the LI, I can't go to Lyoko! We have to have somebody to watch the radar, and there is more to it than just that. I can't explain it all."

I went on. "So ANAX got himself one less Lyoko Warrior to deal with on Lyoko. Even though I'm not the best fighter of all you, it still helps him to have one less person to fight."

"Also," I continued. "I used the data from an Info Orb to decode Code: EARTH, which is now useless. That data could have been used on something else. Something else that ANAX knew we couldn't get our hands on..."

"So somehow ANAX can see what we get from each Info Orb, and he knows all to programs that are on the SuperComputer!" Brittany said. "What are we gonna do?"

"There's not much we can do," I said. "ANAX has access to the data, and I can't write an advanced enough firewall to keep him out. I still haven't figured out all this you know."

There were a few seconds of silence.

"Still," Tennent said. "ANAX did do a considerable amount of damage, but couldn't he have done more? I not complaining or anything... It just seems weird. Why would he just take what he got, and not try to push for something more?"

Again, I had to think a little before I answered.

"It seems to me, that ANAX is not a full strength, otherwise he wouldn't be trying to drain energy from the Towers. So it is clear he has a limited amount of power."

"Think about this: How much energy did ANAX spend on the trap? He had to make all those monsters, warp the Super Scan, make the Towers appear purple, and animate Hannah to the degree that we thought she was sentient!"

"I wouldn't be surprised if ANAX himself was inside Hannah."

We all shivered at that.

"So... the point is?" Brittany asked.

"Oh, right. My point is: After ANAX has done all this, how much energy does he have left to manufacture and run a powerful virus. I can't explain it to you, but it takes more energy than you might think to modify a Lyoko Avatar. He must have decided that with the energy he would have left over, it would be best spent the way he did."

Sean whistled. "You have to admit, he got us good."

I sighed. Things had taken a very dark turn.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Sean walked back from the Factory to his dorm. On the way, he talked to Tennent.

"So do you think Sammy will be able to fix the LI?" He asked Tennent.

Tennent shrugged. "Probably," he said. "He was able to put it on in the first place, right?"

"True," Sean intoned. "But still, we can't get our decoding program back though. I bet we could have really used that."

"Why do you say that?" Tennent asked, a bit confused.

"Well," Sean started, "we know that XANA has been defeated once. The first Lyoko Warriors must have written new and useful programs. If they helped them, they could help us."

"I guess I see where you're going with that," Tennent said.

A few moments of silence passed.

"Hey, Brittany, Alyssa," Tennent called. They turned around.

"You think we'll be able to go after an Info Orb tomorrow?" He asked.

They fell into step beside the guys.

"It depends," Brittany said. "We don't know exactly what Sammy's gonna be doing with his programs and whatnot. Also, we've got a Science test in two days, and I'm nowhere near prepared."

"Ouch," Sean said. "I haven't studied either.

As it turned out, none of them had. Between deactivating Towers and hunting down Info Orbs, they hadn't had much time to work at their school. They knew that this could only go on for so long though.

When Sean got to his room, he was greeted with a meow. "Glad to see you too, Smudge," He said reaching down to pet the cat.

Tennent got Smudge's food out, and poured a bowlful. He then got some water from the fountain downstairs.

Sean lay on his bed while Tennent was gone. He thought about what had recently transpired. He still was in shock from ANAX's trap. As he thought, several questions came to mind.

_I'll have to ask Sammy tomorrow, _He thought.

When Tennent was done taking care of Smudge, he got out his video games. Sean got out his Science book.

Sean gave Tennent an "Aren't-you-going-to-study?" look.

"What?" Tennent asked.

"Hello? Is anyone home?" Sean said.

"Oh, come on, I can study tomorrow," Tennent said. "Lay off."

"You're a moron," Sean said.

"_You're _a moron," Tennent snapped back.

"Copycat," Sean said.

"Wussy."

"Schnitzel."

"Llama."

"Bone-head."

"Dork-brain."

They were quite used to arguments like this. Sean played his trump card. "_Scrawny!" _He said.

At that, Tennent jumped off his bed. "I am _not _scrawny! I'm svelte!"

Sean left the matter at that. They got ready for bed after a while, and then went to sleep.

* * *

><p>I was back in the Lab, working on restoring my LI. With only a half-hour of work, my suspicions were confirmed. ANAX had done more than simply destroy my LI.<p>

A virus had been injected into my Lyoko Avatar that prevented it from being edited. ANAX had made the last edit, which was taking out the LI. My eyes widened in horror as I realized how this virus functioned.

I checked, and it was already too late. The virus had spread throughout the SuperComputer, infecting all the other Avatars on it. I was grateful that the virus was not corrosive, but still, its effects could cost us later.

As ANAX grew stronger, we would have to grow to meet him. Part of that would be upgrades in our Avatars. With this stupid virus, I couldn't do that now.

I did some research, and tried some programming. Nothing I could do would reverse the effects.

_If only I knew more about how ANAX's viruses work, _I thought. This much needed information would not be found for quite some time.

After a few more minutes, I gave up.

I wasn't finished though; there were still a few things I had to clear up.

For one, I had to run a full check on the SuperComputer to see if ANAX had done anything else with his trap. I doubted it, but you can never be too sure.

Second, I was still wondering about Hannah. While it was clear that she had been used to trap us, I wasn't convinced that she was fabricated by ANAX.

I noticed that she dispersed into smoke before disappearing. If she was truly human, I doubted that she would be able to do that, but I thought that I might be her Lyoko power. If it was, ANAX was misusing it.

Using the Digital Signature that I had found, I ran a scan on Lyoko. No traces were found.

Also, I looked more closely at the Signature. I then saw why the SuperComputer had related her to Aelita.

It was the Keys to Lyoko. That's why they were related. A quick study proved that those Keys were quite fake. This crushed any chance of her being human. If she was truly human, she either has the Keys or she doesn't. By the structure of Lyoko, no one could possess _fake _Keys to Lyoko. Logic told me this.

As I logged off the Interface, a thought hit me. Joy met me, but then it fell as I realized something else.

I had thought that since ANAX had used fake Keys in Hannah's Digital Signature, then maybe ANAX didn't have any Keys to Lyoko! Then I realized something that annulled that. Supposing that ANAX possessed a Key, he wouldn't be able to just implement it into a Signature. The Keys didn't work that way.

In addition to that, it could be something just to throw us off. ANAX knew that if his trap succeeded, than we would have access to this information. He could have made the Keys clearly fake to make me think that he didn't have any Keys.

Of course, ANAX was on Lyoko all the time. He didn't rest. He didn't take breaks. We only had four Keys to Lyoko. I wouldn't be surprised if ANAX had eight or nine with the amount of time he had spent on Lyoko.

I hung my head as I walked home. It seemed as if we couldn't win against ANAX and XANA. I talked myself into a state of despair. Of course, if I had known how much worse a state ANAX was in, I would have been a lot happier.

* * *

><p>"This is despicable!" XANA exclaimed. "You have only found a <em>single <em>key to Lyoko!"

"I am sorry, Master," ANAX said. "The Orbs remain at a high altitude, where even Hornets cannot reach them. For a reason still unknown, they gravitate toward Humans."

"That is no excuse!" XANA exploded with as much force as he could muster. At this point, that wasn't much.

"We must double our efforts!" He said.

ANAX did not argue. His power levels were already low, but by his programming, he could not disobey an order from XANA, as long as they did not contradict his pre-existing programming.

"It will be as you desire, my Master," ANAX said, withdrawing himself to his work.

* * *

><p>Early the next morning, Sean and Tennent heard a knock on their door. Tennent opened the door a small amount, so that his body blocked anyone trying to see into the room.<p>

He saw that his visitors were Alexis and Kat, the school news reports.

"Can I help you?" He asked, looking down at the shorter 7th graders.

"Yeah, we were wondering if we could interview you for the Kadic News," Alexis said.

"Um, alright," Tennent said.

"Kat turned the camera on, as Alexis began, "We heard a rumor that you're hiding a cat on campus. Can you confirm or deny this?"

"Uh... A c-c-cat?" Tennent stuttered. "I don't have a cat."

"Alright then," Alexis said, writing something down in her notebook.

"Do you mind if we come in for the rest of the interview?" She asked with a sweet smile.

Tennent found himself in an impossible conundrum. His negotiating skills were shaky at best.

Before long, he had admitted to owning Smudge.

"You've gotta keep this a secret!" Tennent begged. Sean looked on, slightly amused.

"Why?" Kat asked.

"Because, if the wrong people find out about this, I'll lose Smudge!"

They walked over to the corner of the room, to discuss something privately.

After a minute, they came back. "We won't tell anyone," Alexis said.

Tennent let out the breath he was holding.

"On one condition," Kat continued. Tennent sucked is breath back in.

As Sean listened in, a big grin lit his face. He was going to enjoy this as much as Alexis and Kat would.

* * *

><p>Brittany, Sean, Alyssa, and Tennent met me in the schoolyard. I was ready to report my findings from last night, when I noticed something that improved my mood significantly.<p>

"Hey Tennent, you mind explaining?" I asked laughing.

"Actually, I do mind! So lay off, Einstein."

I could hardly control myself. Tennent wore big pink floppy bunny ears. They were tied comically around his chin. The ears stood straight up.

"Kat and Alexis found out about Smudge, and they wanted to make a news report out of him. Tennent disagreed, so they found a compromise!" Sean explained.

_Today is going to be a fun day, _I thought.

Tyce walked up from behind me, and snapped a picture with his phone.

"Hey Tennent, what happened?" He asked clutching his stomach.

"I lost a bet..." Tennent muttered. Apparently that was the lie he was going with. Even though Tyce knew about Smudge, Tennent was probably just in a bad mood.

The day progressed, and Tennent had quite a time. I was able to fill my friends in on the situation during lunch.

When I finished, somber gazes met me. Even Tennent looked somewhat serious, which is nearly impossible the way he was dressed.

"Well, if ANAX has gotten any more Keys to Lyoko than we do, than we _have _to go to Lyoko this afternoon, Science test or not!" Alyssa said.

I nodded.

"That's kind of disappointing, about Hannah and all," Tennent said wistfully. "I was hoping that we'd be heroes."

"Dreams do die hard," I said.

So it was settled. We'd go to Lyoko as soon as school was over, and if we had time afterwards, we would study for the test together.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

"Ready?" I asked over the microphone.

"Ready!" was the reply.

"Ok, I'm starting the procedure," I said as I began to type. "Transfer, Brittany ... Transfer, Alyssa." I configured the coordinates. I figured that we had the highest chance of getting an Info Orb from the Desert Sector.

"Scanner, Brittany ... Scanner, Alyssa." I activated the Scanners, and they began to scan the Lyoko Warriors. It recognized their DNA sequence code, and the window for such popped up.

When the Scanners had finished, I hit the enter key. "Virtualization!" I said.

"Ok guys, it's your turn," I said. Soon, Sean and Tennent joined Alyssa and Brittany on Lyoko.

"It sure is a good thing that you managed to get your retrieval program finished before ANAX wiped out the LI," Brittany said.

"Yeah," I told her. "We should consider ourselves lucky."

"So where's the Info Orb?" Tennent asked, ready to go.

"Due west from you current position. About 50 feet," I answered.

"Great," Sean said. "It looks like we'll be ducking and weaving!" He gestured west, where a mass of giant rocks were. They were tall and thin, like wide knives that were stabbed into Lyoko. The rocks formed a maze of sorts.

"Well it shouldn't be too hard," Tennent mentioned. "Especially not with my Lyoko Power!"

"He's right," I told them. "So don't waste time."

They set off. When they reached the cluster rocks, they found that they were a little late. A Klanker emerged from each side of a rock, followed by four Hornets.

They opened fire immediately.

"Yahoo!" Tennent cried, leaping onto one of the rocks, scaling it easily.

To his surprise, the Klankers followed him right up, lasers blasting all the way.

* * *

><p><em>Rats, <em>Tennent thought. _I forgot that they could do that._

He lured them away from the rest of the Lyoko Warriors by jumping from rock to rock. The Klankers followed relentlessly. Soon, one of them scored a hit, sending Tennent flying down to the ground.

As he pulled himself up, he thought of his friends. He couldn't see their fight, but he could hear it.

As the Klankers advanced, Tennent fired a few Laser Arrows at one of them. They were all blocked, except for one that impacted on the monster's midsection. It tumbled to the ground.

Tennent quickly fired another Arrow, and destroyed it.

"Yes!" He exclaimed. His brief thought of victory was ruined by the second Klanker shooting him in the arm.

* * *

><p>Alyssa charged up an Energy Field and released it at one of the Hornets. It dropped down to avoid the shot.<p>

As she dodged a flurry of lasers from the monsters, she asked, "Can anyone see the Info Orb?"

"Yeah," Brittany said pointing up. "It's way up there!"

This was not going to be easy.

* * *

><p>Sean threw a knife at a Hornet and missed. The Hornet blasted him in the leg in exchange.<p>

Rather than lie on the ground and take more hits, Sean turned invisible. He leaped up, and sprang off a nearby rock. When the Hornet came within reach, Sean flashed out his whip, destroying the monster.

He landed, and turned visible again.

* * *

><p>At the Factory, I was watching the radar closely. I had prepared the retrieval system to be ready to go at a second's notice.<p>

As I watched, I saw how many Life Points Tennent was losing. "Tennent," I called. "Watch it! If you take one more hit, it'll be the end of your stay on Lyoko!"

"Thanks for the warning, Sammy," He said.

On the screen, the Info Orb dropped suddenly in altitude. If Tennent ran up the rock in front of him, he should be able to jump and snag the Orb!

"Tennent-" I started.

"I see it, I see it!" He replied.

* * *

><p>Tennent dashed up the steep sloped rock in front of him. As he climbed, he jumped back and forth to avoid being hit by the Klanker.<p>

He reached the top of the stone. The Orb was right there, begging to be captured it seemed. He jumped forward.

His fingers were inches away from the Info Orb when a laser impacted into his back, sending him spinning out of the way, and back to Earth.

When he woke up in the Scanner, he said, "Oh... That is so unfair, ANAX!"

* * *

><p>"Bad news guys," I said. "Tennent was devirtualized just a millisecond away from getting the Orb."<p>

"Oh that's just great," Sean said. "Now what do we do?"

"Finish taking care of the monsters," I said. "The Info Orb is headed your way now. With some luck you'll be able to get it."

"That's not much of a plan..." Alyssa said, destroying a Hornet.

* * *

><p>On Lyoko, the Warriors had more to deal with. The Klanker that devirtualized Tennent had come back to them, and there were still two Hornets left.<p>

The Klanker attacked Sean at close range. He was forced to draw his sword and engage the monster in hand-to-hand combat. He hated to admit it, but the Klanker was a pretty good swordsman.

The Klanker's arms swiveled and turned, weaving a deadly trap of virtual steel. Sean did his best to repel the attack, but he found himself being pushed backwards.

Suddenly, he missed a parry, and a blade flashed into his shoulder.

"Sean, one more hit like that and it's "game over" for you!" Sean heard Sammy say.

"I'm doing the best I can, Einstein!"

Sean dropped to his knees, and rolled off to the side. He sprang up and attacked the Klanker. The way Klankers are structured, it allows them to turn around without moving their legs. Despite this, Sean bought himself enough time to slam his sword into the eye of ANAX on the monster. The explosion sent him reeling backwards.

Sean looked up. The Info Orb was coming right to him! He started running, and looked over his shoulder. Alyssa and Brittany seemed to be able to handle the last Hornet.

He was closing in on the Info Orb. He looked back again, and saw that Brittany had been devirtualized.

Focusing his thoughts ahead, he gained ground. He dove forward, and grabbed the Orb.

"Sammy! Run the program!" He yelled.

* * *

><p>At the Factory, I hit the enter key. It sure was nice to have the program on standby like that.<p>

"Watch it Sean, ANAX is materializing a Tarantula right on top of you!"

He rolled out of the way. The pinpricks of light that heralded the retrieval program had already begun to swirl. Sean looked, and saw the digital structure of a Tarantula appear. Soon, it gained color, and dropped down.

"You have lost!" It roared. It fired a laser at Sean. He tried to dodge, but with the Info Orb in his hands, it was too hard. The blast hit him full on, and he devirtualized.

"No!" I exclaimed. I had no idea what would happen if Sean was devirtualized while the retrieval program was running. I hadn't considered that when I made it.

Thankfully, the data finished downloading before the devirtualization process reached his hands.

*Whew!*

* * *

><p>Afterwards, I materialized Alyssa. When we had all gathered in the Lab, I opened the file.<p>

"Well," Brittany prompted after a few seconds.

"It's the fifth Key to Lyoko!" I said triumphantly.

We celebrated with various high-fives and the like.

It was 5:00 now, so we headed back to Kadic to brush up on our Science test. Even I hadn't studied much.

* * *

><p>"So, I'm not understanding this third law of gravity here," Tennent complained.<p>

"What does it mean, 'varies inversely as the square of the distance'?" He asked.

"Let me explain," I began.

Thus the night wore on. As I went to bed that night, I was cautiously optimistic about our progress. We were halfway there!


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

The next morning, I got up early to work on decoding some of the SuperComputer's programs. I had several projects I was working on. Some of the data looked really interesting, most of it was notes. I was still working on cracking the code. Part of the reason why it was so hard was because I didn't know the best way to do it.

I could either (1) Write a program that can crack codes (That would be very hard) or (2) Find the encoding matrix, and implement it into the file (which would be very hard) or finally, (3) I could crack codes the old fashioned way, which would be very hard.

None of the solutions seemed to help me out very much, so I went with what I thought would be easiest, number 2.

That had several of its own problems, which are too numerous to be worth mentioning here.

Time flew, and soon I realized that I had nearly missed my first class. In a rush, I got ready and went to class.

When I got there, Tennent greeted me, "Hey buddy! I hope you don't mind that I took you're portion at breakfast. It would be a shame to let good food to go to waste."

"It's alright," I told him. "Just don't get used to it."

"So, are you all ready for tomorrow?" He asked.

"Huh?" I was confused. "What's going on tomorrow?"

"Hello?" Sean said tapping my forehead. "Tomorrow is October 31st!"

Silence.

"Oh!" I said after a few seconds. It finally clicked. "It's Halloween tomorrow."

Tennent nodded.

"I don't have time for that stuff. Besides, I can use the extra time to work on decoding the SuperComputer, and even putting that aside, I can't eat too much candy before I get sick."

"C'mon, Einstein, at least dress up and hang out with us," Tennent pleaded.

"Aren't you a little old to be dressing up for Halloween?" I asked.

"I'm only 14," He protested.

I rolled my eyes. I didn't see how it was worth arguing. "Look, if you want to go, fine by me. I've got more important things to do than gather candy in the dead of night."

He shrugged.

"So let me guess. You're going as, Frankenstein?" I said.

He nodded, and struck a pose that I really can't describe.

"Take me to your leader, earthlings!" He said grinning.

"Tennent," Sean said.

"Yeah?" He replied.

A pause. "_Aliens _say that... Not Frankenstein."

"Oh..." Tennent said.

Mrs. Morgan walked into the room. "Quiet down, everyone! Take your seats." She commanded.

We moved to our desks. "Now, open your textbooks to page 37, class. If you remember correctly we were discussing the gravitational laws..." Mrs. Morgan droned on.

I half listened. I was still thinking about my decoding matrix.

* * *

><p>The rest of the day went by without further events. Until lunch that is.<p>

"Hey, Sean!" We heard. Rachel was running up to us.

"Hide me," Sean whimpered.

Rachel covered the rest of the distance between us and her. "You want to go out with me tomorrow night?" She asked, putting on her sincerest smile.

"A tempting offer, but... NO!" Sean said.

"Rachel, if you think Sean would even consider that then your brain is a lot more twisted than I first thought!"

She walked away growling.

We sat down at a table with Brittany and Alyssa.

"Are you dressing up for Halloween?" Tennent asked them.

"Um..." Alyssa said.

"Yeah, yeah, I get the picture," Tennent grumbled. "It looks like I'll be going by self this year."

"Let me guess," Brittany said. "You're going as Frankenstein."

"Yep!" Tennent said.

"How'd you guess?" Alyssa asked. "I'm thinking there's a story behind this."

"Funny you should say that..." Sean began.

* * *

><p>Knowing that Tennent wouldn't want to come with us on a trip to Lyoko, I decided that going after another Info Orb could wait until <em>after <em>Halloween. In the meantime, I worked on my decoding.

I was working on decoding a text file, which I assumed to be notes of some sort. I found out that it was Jeremy's diary, but so far, I hadn't seen anything interesting. All that I had decoded was a record of several XANA attacks. I knew though that there would have to be more stuff later on, for Jeremy would surely record the writing of any new programs. I'd still have to find them and decode them, but it would still help.

The time for trick-or-treating finally arrived. Tennent was dressed in his standard costume. He wore a mask that looked like Frankenstein's monster, the cape of Dracula, big foot shoes, and the body of a werewolf.

"Spiffy," I complemented him.

He grinned, and then turned to leave.

"By the way," I cautioned him. "Don't eat all the candy you get tonight all at once. You'll make yourself sick."

"I'm not stupid," Tennent told me.

"Oh really?" I asked.

He stuck his tongue out at me.

* * *

><p>About a half-hour later, the trouble started. My computer opened up the Super Scan window and indicated an activated Tower.<p>

I ran over to Sean's room, and told him of the attack. We then called Alyssa and informed her.

We ran out into the hall, and were met with a staggering sight. A giant dark blue ghost was waiting for us!

"Yikes!" Sean yelled. "What is that thing?"

His cry brought all the other students that were on the same floor to see the ghost.

The ghost was massive. Its "head" reached nearly to the 8 foot high ceiling. Up close, it looked even bigger.

The blob of shadow loomed over us. I wanted to scream, but I was paralyzed with fear. I would never tell my friends that though.

The ghost creeped up to us until it was only a centimeter away. I shrunk to the ground. When the ghost proceeded to advance, I shut my eyes. I couldn't look.

A few seconds later, nothing had happened. I risked a glance upwards. Nothing. The ghost must have phased right through us! The thought sent a shiver down my spine.

Sean and I exchanged horrified looks with the other guys in the dorm. All at once, human instinct took over, and we bolted for the door.

Before we had even made it down the stairs, we heard shrill cries coming from the girls' floor.

Under normal circumstances, Sean and I would have tried to be chivalrous and go see if we could help the girls out.

In the state we were in: not likely. We continued our dash to the door.

Once outside, I began to calm down and think about what had happened.

"What was that thing?" Sean asked.

"I hope it was ANAX's attack," I told him.

"You _hope?_"

"Well if it was ANAX, how do you explain the fact that it didn't try to kill us?" I demanded.

As my last statement sunk in, Sean eyes widened. "That's crazy! Ghosts don't exist." He said.

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Anyway, we should find Alyssa and Brittany, and get to the Factory. After that, we should call Tennent and get him to come and help us." Sean suggested.

"Are you sure we shouldn't leave one or two of us behind to keep an eye on things?" I asked him. "You know that if there's a victim, a Return in time won't fix it."

"Well, it didn't attack _us_," Sean said.

He had a point. And yet, we still weren't sure that the ghost was of ANAX's doing.

"Still, I think one of us should stay here," I told him.

I figured that he knew it wasn't worth the risk. He conceded.

After that, we went to find the girls. It didn't take us long to meet up with them.

"Do you think that's ANAX's attack?" Brittany asked. "The ghost didn't even attack us! It just went right by!"

"Part of me hopes it _is _ANAX. Another part of me hopes that it isn't," I told her.

"Why do you say that?" Alyssa asked.

"I'll explain on the way; c'mon, let's get to the Factory."

* * *

><p>First off all, Brittany called Tennent to ask him to get back to the Academy and watch things. He wasn't real happy about it, but soon he went to do it.<p>

I began explaining as we ran. "If this ghost _is _ANAX's doing, then it really makes me wonder why he didn't attack us. I'll bet he's plotting something really sinister."

Understanding clicked with my friends. Alyssa finished for me. "And you hope it isn't ANAX because you don't want him getting an edge on us. At the same time, you want it to be ANAX because otherwise, there's no explanation for this ghost."

"Right," I nodded to her.

I then stopped talking, and saved my breath. It was a long run to the Factory, and I was usually pretty worn out after finally getting there.

When we arrived, I was sucking wind. "There's _got _to be an easier way to get here!" I gasped.

"Ah, suck it up," Sean said grinning.

Funny. That's exactly what I was doing. Except "it" referred to the oxygen that I was drawing into my lungs.

I soon regained my breath, and got into my chair. "I'll start up the virtualization process," I said. My friends descended to the Scanners room.

* * *

><p>Tennent had filled half of his pillow case with candy when his phone rang. He answered, and found that it was Brittany.<p>

"Tennent," She said.

"Yeah," He responded.

"Listen, we think ANAX is up to something. A Tower has been activated, and there's a weird ghost patrolling the school. We need you to keep an eye on things at Kadic, ok?"

"Aww," He complained. "I haven't even made it halfway around the town!"

"Tennent, this is serious!"

"Yeah, yeah, I get your drift," He said bitterly.

He hung up, and began trudging back to the school.

Before he got within a hundred yards of Kadic he could hear screaming. That spurred him to run faster.

When he arrived, he saw the schoolyard run amuck. A giant dark blue specter of doom presided over the chaos.

To Tennent's surprise, there were no bolts of lightning, or any other means of destruction. It seemed that this... creature... was just exploring the campus.

Intrigued, and only slightly frightened, he ducked behind the ghost, and began to watch it.

* * *

><p>Alyssa virtualized onto Lyoko. She dropped down, and landed precisely. She looked around and saw that they were in the Forest Sector, on a long and narrow platform.<p>

"Hurry up!" She heard Sammy say. "The Tower is at the end of the path in front of you."

"What have we got in terms of a welcoming committee?" Sean asked, looking up at the sky.

"I don't know," Sammy said. "I've got three monsters on my screen, but I can't identify them."

"Do you think ANAX has created a new kind of monster?" Alyssa inquired.

"I don't know," Sammy replied. "It looks that way, but it could just be a bug in the system. I'll see what I can do. In the meantime, try to deactivate the Tower."

"Alright," Brittany said, and they started off.

The platform was not wide enough for all three of them to run side by side, so Alyssa ran next to Brittany with Sean in front of them.

Before long, they came within sight of the Tower. This view also brought the sight of a new monster.

"Woah!" Brittany said, stopping.

"What is it?" Sammy asked.

"It's a new monster alright!" Sean told him.

Alyssa stared in amazement at the new creature. It was flat and circular, about a foot and a half thick. It floated about two feet off the ground, with the wide side of the circle facing the ground. The monster was solid silver, except for a blue eye of ANAX on the top of the monster.

In simple terms, it was almost like the top part of a Krab, with obvious differences.

The monsters began to spin. Spikes came out of their sides, making them look like living buzz-saws. The eye did not rotate with the rest of the monster.

_It must be on a gyroscope or something, _Alyssa thought.

Wasting no more time, the monsters advanced. Lasers erupted from some sort of tiny blaster on the body. The monsters had to time their shots so that they would hit accurately, for the blaster was mounted on the spinning part of their bodies. At the same time, that meant the monster could shoot from any direction. You could never sneak up behind these monsters.

"What's going on over there?" Sammy demanded.

"These monsters are like buzz-saws!" Sean exclaimed. "They're chasing us, _and _shooting at us!"

"Well that's just great," Sammy said sarcastically. "Do you have a plan?"

"We were hoping you did!" Alyssa said.

"Sorry, I don't know what to tell you to do. Watch it! The platform ends thirty feet in front of you!" Sammy yelled. "By the way, have you noticed that you are heading in the opposite direction of the Tower?" He asked.

"I'd love to see you down here, Einstein! You'd be running right with us!"

"Actually, I'd be using my Lyoko Power to jump on top of those things," was the reply. "Do you think you could try it?" He asked.

"Here goes nothing," Sean said.

He turned around and started running the other way. When he was two feet away from the leading monster, he leaped up.

It looked like he would make it, but one of the monsters further back stopped him. In an amazing display of power, the monster flew up high into the air, and bashed itself down on Sean. The spikes tore into his body, devirtualizing him.

"No!" Alyssa said. She launched an Energy Field and it collided with the side of the monster. It was enveloped in a cloud of pink energy, and then continued onwards.

Soon, Alyssa and Brittany had been cornered against the end of the platform.

_How are we going to get out of this one? _Alyssa wondered.

* * *

><p>Tennent followed the phantom out of the school and into the town. It must have gotten bored of terrorizing Kadic.<p>

The ghost went through the town systematically, pausing to phase through each house. Its behavior was quite strange. The ghost never harmed anyone, it simply went around.

Tennent thought for a while, but he could not come up with any reason for the way the creature was acting.

The police arrived, and things got a little interesting. Upon sight of the ghost, the troopers opened fire. The bullets went straight through the ghost, colliding with houses and trees.

After a minute of fruitless shooting, the policemen gave up. They began urging the people to evacuate the area.

That is much easier said than done. There was a large amount of panic in the area.

Tennent made up his mind. The ghost was not going to harm anyone. The best way to resolve this was to get to the Factory, and lend his friends a hand on Lyoko.

* * *

><p>Brittany leaped up and threw her fan. It slammed into the eye of ANAX on the back monster, destroying it.<p>

When she landed, she was off-balance, and a monster shot her to the ground.

It wasn't long before Brittany was devirtualized.

* * *

><p>I sat in the Factory watching the screen. <em>These monsters are <em>powerful_! _I thought.

Sean stood beside me. "What are we gonna do?" He asked me.

I shrugged.

The elevator set in motion. I assumed it was Brittany, but I was wrong. Tennent stepped out.

"Why aren't you at the school?" I asked him.

"Everything's fine. I'll explain later," He answered. "How are things on Lyoko?"

"Not so great," I told him. "I'm sending you in right away. Alyssa is left fighting, two new monsters alone."

Once he was in the Scanner, I virtualized him.

* * *

><p>Tennent dropped down, and landed next to Alyssa. "Didja miss me?" He asked her.<p>

"Just a little bit," She replied.

Tennent jumped up high, and fired a Laser Arrow. The target exploded.

"These monsters aren't so tough!" Tennent said.

With that, a monster "leaped" up, and crashed into Alyssa.

Seeing that, Tennent dashed off in the direction of the Tower. As Alyssa disappeared, he fired an Arrow. The projectile scratched the eye, and the monster existed no more!

"Yahoo!" Tennent yelled victoriously.

"Great job!" Sammy told him.

In less than a minute, the Tower was deactivated, and I launched a Return to the Past.

* * *

><p>"So let me get this straight," I said to Tennent. We were in the schoolyard, early morning, the previous day. He had just finished telling us his end of the story.<p>

"The ghost never once attacked anyone?" I asked.

"Nope," Tennent said.

"That ghost _has _to be ANAX's attack," Sean said. "It was dark blue, the same color ANAX is the times we've seen him on Lyoko."

We were in general agreement about this fact.

"That makes me worried," I said in a gloomy tone. "I _know _this must be a part of a bigger scheme, but I can't begin to guess what it is."

"Don't worry about it, Sammy!" Tennent encouraged me. "We can worry about it when the time comes, and when it does, I'm sure we can take care of it!"

His words did little to assuage my worries.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

The next day I woke up, and found that I had overslept. I had set my alarm, but fallen asleep at my computer. The alarm blared, and didn't wake me up.

At five minutes 'til breakfast, Sean came in and woke me up.

"Just in case you've forgotten, you _do _have a bed to sleep in," I said jokingly.

"Ha ha," I said back. "I was up last night decoding Jeremy's journal."

"Find anything interesting?"

"Lots of nothing," I answered. "It was a record of one of XANA's attacks: He trapped the Lyoko Warriors in a simulation bubble- a sort of ghost channel- and Jeremy went to Lyoko to rescue them from the trap. In the end, it was Aelita who destroyed the bubble."

"Hm," Sean said. "You never know, it could help us out someday. Anything we can learn about how XANA works will help, right?"

"I guess," I said. "ANAX is under XANA's authority, or at least I'm nearly positive he is, so depending on how much freedom ANAX has, learning about XANA helps."

"Anyway, it's time to eat; they've got pancakes this morning."

He left, and I got dressed, and then followed him.

* * *

><p>I joined my friends at one of the tables. Tennent was digging into a mountain of pancakes, drenched in syrup; while beside him lay to bananas, a muffin, and an orange.<p>

"You got enough food there?" I asked him.

He mumbled something unintelligible through a mouthful of pancake.

"I didn't quite catch that," I said, sitting down.

He swallowed. "I said: This is probably enough to last me until lunch."

"Glad to hear it," I said.

"So," Brittany started. "Are we gonna hunt down another Info Orb today?"

"If you all feel up to it," I said.

"Why would I not feel up to it?" Tennent asked. "ANAX better watch out, cause Tennent's coming to crash his party, and steal an Info Orb!"

"Nice," Sean intoned.

So we decided to go right after school was over.

* * *

><p>Before we left for the Factory, Tennent brought me to his room.<p>

"You said we needed to get to the Factory a better way, so I thought that we could skateboard there! I kept my two old ones, so you and Alyssa can have them. I know Brittany and Sean have their own," Tennent said to me.

"Thanks, but... There's one problem," I said nervously.

"What's that?" Tennent asked.

"Do you mind telling me how I'm going to _ride _one of those things? You know I'm awful at anything athletic, and my balance is terrible!"

That brought a frown, but it didn't last long. It was soon replaced by his usual hundred-watt grin. "C'mon, buddy, I'll teach you!"

I shook my head. "No way," I said. "I don't want to learn how _you _ride a skateboard."

"How do I ride a skateboard?" He asked indignantly.

"Let's just say the word 'kamikaze' comes to mind."

"Oh, I'm not that bad! At least give it a shot." He pleaded.

I finally conceded.

I will say only one thing: It did _not _go well. At all.

Alyssa had a little trouble, but she caught on quickly. She had to get off the board to jump over water in several places, where Sean, Brittany, and Tennent simply jumped the water while on the board. I didn't get how they did that.

When I arrived, I was scraped, bruised, tired, and not just a little upset.

"What took you so long, Einstein?" Tennent asked. "We've been waiting for you for almost ten minutes!"

"You don't _want _to know how many times I fell off," I growled. "I'm just going to buy a scooter, and use _it._" I concluded.

"Hello?" Sean asked. "Do you know how much those things cost? If you want a good one, it's going to cost you about $150!"

"I can afford that," I said smugly.

"Really?" Alyssa asked. "How?"

"Well, I get a lot of money for my Birthday and Christmas each year, and since I don't really spend it on anything, I have about $1500 in my account."

Tennent's jaw dropped, and in that moment, I knew I should have never told him that. He'd be pestering me for a loan before the day was out, I could almost guarantee it.

"So anyway, my point is: I'll be able to get a good-quality scooter with the amount of money I have. I'll have to wait until the weekend to get it," I finished.

There was a moment of silence. I clapped my hands together. "Ready to go?" I asked.

* * *

><p>The Lyoko Warriors dropped out of the sky, and into the Mountain Sector.<p>

"Ok, guys, the Orb is about 20 yards south of you. You should be able to see it," Sammy said.

"Yep," Tennent said. "It's in sight."

"So don't waste time. Hopefully we can get a jump on ANAX this time," Sammy told them.

They started off, with Brittany in the lead. The Orb was doing some sort of loop-de-loop in the sky, and for the moment, was relatively stationary.

When the Lyoko Warriors arrived, they saw that the Info Orb was a good 20 feet above them.

"Does anyone have a pair of wings on them?" Tennent asked.

"No," Sean said. "But I think Cat-boy could climb that wall and then jump and grab it." Sean gestured to a rock face nearby.

Tennent shook his head. "No way. If I miss, or even if I do catch it, I'll crash to the ground. That hurts," He said.

"Are there any other suggestions?" Alyssa asked.

"Just one," Sammy said.

"What's that?" Brittany asked.

"Defend yourselves! ANAX has spotted you," Sammy warned.

Two Klankers and three of the news monsters came around the corner.

"Great," Sean said. "I really hate those Disks."

"Disks?" Brittany inquired.

"My name for them," he explained.

The name stuck.

"That's nice," Alyssa said. "But have you forgotten that they're right in front of us... _Shooting at us?_"

The group scattered as lasers flew into their midst.

Tennent jumped away, and began running. A Klanker locked onto him and began to follow. After he had run some distance, Tennent jumped into the air upside down. With his head near the ground and his feet in the air, he took careful aim, and fired a Laser Arrow.

The monster exploded in a shower of digital sparks. "Yeah!" Tennent exclaimed.

Meanwhile, Brittany was dealing with a Disk. She chucked her fans at the monster, and it leaped into the air to avoid them. Brittany dove out of the way to avoid being crushed upon the Disk's landing.

She ran up, and jumped at the wall of rock in front of her. When her feet hit the wall, she propelled herself backwards, toward the Disk. She whirled her fans at it. Barely in time, the monster dodged to one side, and blasted Brittany in the leg.

When she fell, Sean dashed in to cover her. Soon, the Disk was joined by the other Klanker, and one more Disk. The final Disk was keeping Tennent and Alyssa busy.

Sean found himself in quite a fix as he tried to deflect fire from three different directions, and he soon was driven backwards. He ducked under a series of shots, and then leaped up to throw a knife at the nearest Disk. His aim was true, and the monster exploded.

Alyssa and Tennent struggled with another Disk. While the monster didn't do much attacking, it dodged quite nimbly all of the Lyoko Warriors' attacks. Trying to attack in cadence or from different directions yielded no results.

The Info Orb swooped low, and the Disk made a jump, obviously trying to bring it down. Alyssa aimed at the bottom of the monster, and fired an energy field at it. The Disk was engulfed with a pink aura, and it fell to the ground dazed.

Another shot from Alyssa finished it off.

They both ran to help their friends with the other monsters. Tennent shot an Arrow at what he thought was the Disks back. He was wrong. The Disk saw his blast clearly, and dodged out of the way. The Arrow flew past and hit Brittany devirtualizing her.

Sean looked down in shock. The Klanker took advantage of his temporary distraction, and blasted him to the ground, and peppered him with lasers until, he too, was devirtualized.

"Rats," Tennent said. "What is it with Brittany and Sean being wiped out on Lyoko? First last time, now again." Tennent jumped up and fired an Arrow, destroying the Disk.

The Klanker blasted Tennent out of the air, devirtualizing him.

Randomly, the Info Orb broke off from its flight pattern, and began soaring along the pathway, two feet off the ground.

Alyssa made a grab, and captured the Orb.

"Sammy! Run the program!" She yelled. Sammy did so.

The Klanker began "klanking" its way to Alyssa. As it got closer, Alyssa began to worry.

"Uh, Sammy?" She asked.

"Yeah?" He replied.

"How much can I move around with the program running?" She asked.

"Um, not much. I'd say about 5 or 6 feet is the maximum safe distance." He told her.

Alyssa looked up. The energy was beginning to swirl. It wouldn't be much longer before the retrieval was completed. The Klanker was too close though. When it got in range, it swiped its swords at her. She dodged the first few blows, but one caught her in the stomach, and she tumbled backwards off the edge of the cliff. With the Info Orb.

* * *

><p>At the Factory, I sat on the edge of my chair. When I saw Alyssa fall off the edge, I knew we had lost this round. On the console, I saw the signs that ANAX was getting ready to materialize on Lyoko.<p>

I wasn't really worried about Alyssa, as I could see that there was a platform beneath her on my radar. But I knew there was nothing she could do against ANAX.

In a matter of seconds, it was finished. Alyssa had been devirtualized, and ANAX had gotten the Orb.

I sighed as I hung my head.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

For the rest of the day I worked on improving the Info Orb retrieval system. It needed to be much faster than it was. There were many problems that I encountered.

First of all, the program was still fairly new. I had only just figured out how to make it work, and now I had to find a better way to make it run.

After I played with it for a little bit, I saw that there was only one apparent thing I could do. The power amassed in a linear fashion, and when there was enough, the program could download the data.

If I pushed any more power through the system I had, the collection matrix could collapse into itself, making some sort of digital volcanic activity. The power would be too intense, and would actually digitally "liquefy" to be like some sort of white lava, devirtualizing the person holding the Orb.

So this meant that I had to find another way to put power into the program, and a linear type wouldn't help me.

I could always try to do it exponentially, but there were two problems with that. 1) I'd have to find some sort of way to increase the amount of energy logarithmically. The SuperComputer wouldn't do it on its own. 2) There was still the threat of having an overload of power. While the capacity would be greater, the power would increase incredibly fast and if I couldn't find a way to stop its increase in a proper manner, it would still result in the devirtualization of the Lyoko Warrior holding the Orb.

And I still needed to let the program scan the digital signature of the Lyoko Warrior. That process could not be sped up. I knew that Towers read your signature in an instant, but I didn't have access to Lyoko core programs, such as the ones governing the Towers. Thus, I could find no way to make the program scan quicker.

I ran some experimental calculations and tests. They would run for about an hour before finishing, but I was too tired to wait that long. I decided to go to bed, and work more in the morning.

* * *

><p>Brittany woke up to the sunshine streaming into the window. She rubbed the drowsiness out of her eyes.<p>

Seeing that Alyssa was still asleep in the bed across the room, Brittany moved to wake her up. When she did, Alyssa moaned.

"Time to wake up, sleepyhead," Brittany said. It's nearly time for breakfast."

Alyssa moaned again. "Ugh, I don't feel like eating," She said. She attempted to stand up, but fell back on her bed.

"Ooh... My stomach hurts, and I'm really dizzy," She complained.

"Don't you think you should go to the infirmary then?" Brittany suggested. "It's probably nothing serious."

There was a few seconds before Alyssa replied back, "Sure... I think I can make it."

After getting dressed, the girls walked slowly to the infirmary. When they got there, Brittany explained.

"It's probably just a stomach virus," The nurse proposed. "I'll get you some medicine, and then you should lie down," She told Alyssa.

With that, Brittany was dismissed.

She went to meet the guys at breakfast. She was about 10 minutes late, so, naturally, Tennent was munching away.

"Where's Alyssa?" Sean asked after greeting her.

"She isn't feeling well," Brittany replied. "She's in the infirmary."

She sat down. "Is Sammy not eating breakfast today?" She inquired, noting Tennent's mountain of waffles.

"Nope," Tennent said through a stuffed mouth. "He thaid thomething about impooving the Info Orb program-" *_gulp_* He swallowed. "It was all gibberish to me. Basically, he's run into some problems, and he wants to work on it as much as he can."

That said, Tennent proceeded with his feast.

When breakfast was over, there was still a little time before class, and most of the kids were hanging about the hallways chatting.

Suddenly, Sammy came running up. "ANAX has activated a Tower!" He wheezed.

* * *

><p>"We need to get to Lyoko right away," I said.<p>

"All of us?" Brittany asked. "Shouldn't at least one of us stay behind...? You know, to keep an eye on things?"

I shook my head. "No," I told them. "I'm getting a strange signal from the Tower, and it seems like ANAX is trying to steal its energy. That means he won't be attacking on Earth, and we need every one of us on Lyoko to deactivate the Tower before he gets too much power out of it."

I stopped to catch my breath.

"Could it be a trick?" Sean asked. "We know that ANAX can make the Super Scan display whatever he wants it to. He could be trying to lure us to Lyoko, and do something nasty there."

When I could speak again, I said, "It could be, but it's not worth the risk. It's clear that ANAX is getting more and more powerful, so every bit more he gets, the harder it will be for us."

"Right," Tennent said, polishing off a muffin, and wiping the crumbs on his pants. "Let's go then."

We left quickly, so we wouldn't be caught. We nearly ran into Jim, but a quick duck into a closet saved us.

When he had passed, I realized something. I wondered how I could have forgotten this. "Hey, where's Alyssa?" I asked.

"She's sick," Brittany said.

"Oh."

Today was Friday, so I hadn't been able to go and buy my scooter yet. Seeing that I was the only one that knew how to transfer us to Lyoko, there was no point in the other Warriors getting to the Factory before me. Thus, we all ran.

When we arrived I got out of the elevator, and my friends continued down to the Scanners.

"Transfer, Brittany! Transfer, Sean! Transfer, Tennent!" I said, entering the commands.

"Scanner, Brittany! Scanner, Sean! Scanner, Tennent!" I activated the scanning process.

"Virtualization!" I hit the enter key, completing the procedure.

* * *

><p>I felt the now familiar feeling of being virtualized. As usual, I regained my consciousness in the air. Instinctively, I landed solidly, and stood up.<p>

Looking down, I saw that everything was in place. My knives were all strapped neatly in their holders, my sword slung across my back, and my whip in its holster.

Looking up, I saw Brittany and Tennent standing with me in the Ice Sector.

"Move it," Sammy said. "The Tower is east of your position. ANAX has got the welcome mat all laid out for you. Two Krabs and Two Tarantulas are guarding the Tower."

"Thanks for the warning," I said looking up at where it seemed Sammy's voice was coming from.

"Let's go!" Brittany said.

We dashed after her, taking the path that lead east. It was funny how our sense of direction was amped up on Lyoko, but it did make things easier.

It wasn't long before we sighted the Tower. It was situated on a broad flat piece of land, with the monsters waiting in strategic positions.

When I saw the Tarantulas, I grabbed my whip and activated it.

Brittany drew her fans, and Tennent readied his shot.

With no formalities, the Tarantulas began their rapid fire. I weaved back and forth in an irregular pattern to make myself a difficult target.

Despite this, the monsters seemed to miss me by a larger margin than they usually do. The Krabs fired only a few shots, and they were all badly aimed.

This worried me. Sammy seemed concerned that ANAX was up to something, especially with the events of Halloween night. I remembered the last time that the monsters were easy to fight: Hannah. That episode had resulted in quite a loss on our side.

I didn't have time to communicate my worries. I was on top of a Tarantula now.

Leaping into the air, I lashed my whip at its XANA eye. My enemy reached its "arm" up to have the laser coil around it, and it then jerked me to the ground.

I jumped up and recovered, managing to not take a single hit. I was now even more worried. At point blank range, I should have taken at least one hit, especially since I was flat on my back.

I leaped forward again and easily disposed of the Tarantula. By the time this was done, I noticed that Brittany and Tennent had each wiped out a monster.

"Let's take this one together, Sean," Tennent said, gesturing to the remaining Krab.

We ran up and split our paths, surrounding the monster. Confusedly, it swiveled between the two of us, as if deciding who to shoot. I gave it no time. I rolled up under it, and jabbed my sword into its XANA eye from beneath the monster.

The fight was over. It was dead silent on Lyoko.

"Sammy-" I started.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," he interrupted. "That was too easy. Not one of you lost a single Life Point."

"Should we still deactivate the Tower?" Brittany asked.

Sammy hesitated a bit before answering, "Yes, we can't run the risk. I just hope that it's not a trick..."

Naturally, we hoped in vain.

"XANA," ANAX began. "Only three of the children are on Lyoko. Alyssa is not with them. Should I proceed as planned?" He asked.

XANA thought this over. He weighed the options, his logic engine running full speed.

"We don't have much time," ANAX warned.

"We must proceed. We can still eliminate three of the fools, the last two will fall easily," XANA said, his mind made up.

"Kill them all."

With the last command, ANAX left to do his masters bidding.

* * *

><p>Brittany entered the Tower. In a few moments, Sean and Tennent saw the color fade from dark blue to white.<p>

"Alright," I said. "I'm gonna launch a Return to the Past. We don't need to explain why we missed math class this morning."

I started up the program and entered the commands. "Return to the Past now," I said hitting the enter key.

On my screen I saw a sudden discharge of energy on Lyoko.

_Uh oh, _I thought.

* * *

><p>On Lyoko, Sean and Tennent stood in front of the Tower. When the Return was launched, a bright beam of electricity laced across their vision, and they blacked out.<p>

* * *

><p>The Return put me back at last night. Shaking the cobwebs out of my thinking, I got to working on my program again. I made little progress, and soon called it a night.<p>

In the morning, I got up and went to eat breakfast. Surprisingly, I was alone. After I ate, I looked around. I found Alyssa in the infirmary, but I couldn't find Tennent, Sean, or Brittany. I was worried now.

I decided to skip class again and check out the Factory. I thought that maybe that discharge of energy had something to do with it.

I jogged over to the Lab, saving my energy. When I got there, I launched a scan, and found no anomalies.

Not yet ready to give up hope, I called Alyssa.

"Hello?" She answered.

"Hey Alyssa, it me, Sammy,"

"What's up?" She asked.

"I've checked the school, and Sean, Tennent, and Brittany aren't here. I ran a scan on Lyoko, and it seems that they're not there either!"

"What! Are you saying they've disappeared?"

"Yes... well, maybe not... I don't know! I need you to come to the Factory."

"What for?" She asked.

"ANAX could be bugging up the radar, making it impossible for me to see or hear them. I need you to search Lyoko and see if you can find them."

"Oh c'mon Sammy, can't you do it yourself?" She complained.

"I could, but then I wouldn't have a way to guess what ANAX is plotting. To do that, I need the interface here, or the LI, which isn't possible."

"Oh alright, I'm coming. Just give me some time- I'm really dizzy when I stand up, so it will take me a while to make it to you."

She hung up. I did the same.

Then I tried a little experiment. Before carrying it out, I hesitated. The results of this test could indicate something very nasty, something I was sure if I could handle.

Knowing that there were no other options, I continued. I dialed Tennent's phone number.

Nothing. His voice mail didn't even come on. This was what I was afraid of. If I didn't get his voice mail, then it meant something had happened to his phone.

It made sense that he would still be on Lyoko. When you were virtualized, if you had your phone in your pocket, then it still dissembles the atoms, it just doesn't transfer them to Lyoko with you. It works the same way with your clothes.

If the atoms of Tennent's cell phone were being stored somewhere in Lyoko's memory, then it made sense that nothing would happen when the number was called.

If he didn't come back to Earth when the Return was launched, then it meant that ANAX was up to something.

Then a much darker thought hit me. I had read in Jeremy's journal about a void that exists between Earth and Lyoko. Jeremy said that he hung suspended in that world, and the computer nearly deleted him, but Aelita managed to save him in time.

If ANAX had suspended my friends in the void, then it would make even more sense. It would explain the cell phone, _and _why they didn't appear on the radar!

I was terrified. I knew how little time there would be until they were deleted. If I lost my friends, I didn't know what I would do.

On top of that, with only me and Alyssa left, ANAX would win. I slumped down into my chair as I waited for Alyssa to arrive.

* * *

><p>When Tennent recovered his senses, he saw that he was lying in his bed. Sean lay in the one across the room.<p>

Tennent hopped up and went over to Sean.

Looking at the clock, Tennent noted that it was a little after midnight. He whispered, "Sean, are you awake?"

He stirred. "I am now,"

"Wow, you're a light sleeper," Tennent said.

"Whatever... what do you want?"

"Do you remember that flash of light on Lyoko a few seconds ago?"

Sean lifted his head up, as if thinking.

"Now that you mention it, yes," he answered.

"So what do you think it was?" Tennent asked. "I've never seen it before."

"I don't know," Sean said sleepily. "We can ask Sammy tomorrow. For now, were fine, so let's get some sleep."

Sean turned over in his bed.

Tennent went to his bed to rest. As he laid down, he felt something strange near his rear end. He couldn't figure out what it was, and soon found a comfortable position, so he forgot about it.

* * *

><p>When morning came, Brittany got up and went to take a shower. Surprisingly, Alyssa was not in her bed. Brittany guessed that she had already headed for the infirmary, and went on down the hall.<p>

An even greater surprise greeted her. Rachel was not hogging the bathroom! In fact, all the girls moved in a swift and orderly pattern, getting ready for the day.

In almost no time at all she was finished, and ready to go.

More surprised than worried, Brittany left to go eat.

Tennent and Sean were already in the cafeteria.

Brittany got in line and got some biscuits, eggs, and some juice.

"Is Sammy not eating again?" She asked.

Sean shrugged.

She sat down, and saw that Tennent was not eating like normal.

"What's the matter?" she asked. "Are you sick?"

He responded, "No, but I think I will be after I choke this down!"

"What do you mean?" She asked, confused.

"Just try the food," He said.

Lifting a biscuit up to her mouth, she bit into it. She chewed and swallowed. To her surprise, she didn't taste a thing. She hardly even felt the food in her mouth!

She tried another bite, and found that it was even worse. With no taste, and almost no feeling, she couldn't make herself eat it.

"What on earth is wrong?" She asked.

"Do you think I know?" Tennent demanded.

"Idiot," Brittany said. "I didn't expect you to know."

She took a sip of her juice and grimaced. She didn't feel anything at all.

Tennent marched back into the line. Or what was left of it at least.

"Kylie!" He said addressing the cook. "Do you know what you did to the food today?"

"Um, I made it just like I always do," She replied. "What's wrong with it?"

"I can't taste a thing! And I can hardly even feel it!"

Kylie took a bite of her own food. "It tastes fine to me, Tennent," She said. "What's with you?" She asked. "Normally you can't eat enough of my food."

Dissatisfied, he stomped back to the table.

Brittany was worried now. Looking around, she noted that everyone else was eating like normal. It seemed as if they were the only ones that couldn't taste anything.

Rachel hadn't talked to Sean once today, neither had she taken an irrational amount of time in the bathroom. The food was weird, and it felt like there was something on her back that she couldn't get rid of.

She was worried that this was ANAX's doing... somehow.

She communicated her worries to her friends. "Do you think that flash we saw had something to do with it?" She asked in conclusion.

"Possibly," Sean said. "We should go talk to Sammy."

* * *

><p>Sean walked up the stairs that led to the 8th grade guys' floor. He reached Sammy's room and knocked.<p>

"Come in," Sammy said.

He did so. "What's up?" Sean asked.

There was a pause before Sammy answered. "I'm just trying to sort out my programming," He said.

Sean then began explaining about the weird stuff that had been going on.

"And I have this weird feeling about me. It's like I'm carrying something I can't see. It's near my hip, on my back, and a little on my chest," He concluded.

"I don't think that flash had anything to do with it," Sammy said. "That was probably just the energy starting the Return in time."

"Well how do you explain all the strange stuff that's going on? I met Rachel in the hall and asked her if she wanted to have lunch together, and she didn't say a word! Something weird is going on," He said.

"What am I, a wizard?" Sammy asked irritably. "How should I know the answers to everything?"

"Ok, ok..." Sean said backing out of the room.

He met with Brittany and Tennent in the school yard.

"There's definitely something strange going on," Sean reported. "And whatever it is, Sammy seems to be affected by it as well."

Brittany nodded. "I think Alyssa is too. She wasn't acting like she normally does, and she's not sick anymore for some reason."

"Well whatever is happening, it's up to us to figure it out," Tennent said.

* * *

><p>ANAX approached XANA cautiously. He did not bring good news.<p>

"What is it," XANA demanded. It was not a question.

"There is a problem," ANAX began. "We do not have enough power to evoke the meltdown. Since I have spent most of my energy creating the trap for the warriors, and making new monsters, the power flow is not consistent."

"Can you fix it?" XANA demanded.

"No, master. The flow will eventually reach a critical point, but it will take longer than we first planned."

"Then carry out the plan," XANA commanded. "And you will _not _fail... Understood?"

"Yes, my master."

* * *

><p>When Alyssa arrived at the Factory, I explained to her my theory.<p>

Her eyes widened as she understood its implications. "That's awful!" She exclaimed. "Is there anything we can do?"

"Not if they're in the void," I answered. Their data would be stored in the Way-Towers, but I don't think ANAX would let us get to _four _towers, even if both of us go."

"We've got to try though!" Alyssa said.

"You're right, I've got an idea. You go to Lyoko and find the Way-Towers. I'll guide you. If you get devirtualized, then I can set up the radar window for you, and we can trade places."

So I transferred her to Lyoko.

She landed in the Forest Sector, near the Way-Tower.

"I don't see any monsters on my screen, but it could be a bug. Is the way clear?" I asked.

"Yep," She said.

"Do you think you can find the data in the terminal?" I asked her.

"Um... maybe. How hard should it be?" was her reply.

"Don't worry, I'll help you."

She got into the Tower and floated up to the top. From the interface, I guided her to several places where the information should be.

"Ok," Alyssa said. "I can only see one code here. The date is from years and years ago."

"Send it to me," I said. "If that code is what I think it is, then we could have solved our mystery."

"Great suggestion," Alyssa said. "How do I send it to you?"

I told her to tap the window, and drag it to the bottom left corner. I then said to double tap it, and click the window that would open. I told her to pick the first frequency listed, which was the interface at the Factory.

When the data had downloaded, I nearly jumped out my chair. This was the record of Jeremy's data being taken! My friends' data would have been somewhere near there if they were in the void, and it wasn't, so I could conclude that they weren't in the void!

I communicated this to Alyssa. "But what if they aren't in the void because they've already been deleted? The Return to the Past took us to around midnight, so they would have been in the void for almost 9 hours! Jeremy wasn't in there that long before he started to get deleted!"

With that, my heart sank. It was true. They could already be gone!

When I pulled myself together again I saw the only option left.

"In that case, our only hope is that they are still somewhere on Lyoko. Check around the Ice Sector. That's where they last were. I'll give you the coordinates." I said.

Since Alyssa was already in a Way-Tower, she could go straight to the Ice Sector, and proceed to where the Lyoko Warriors were last seen.

"Hey Sammy," Alyssa said.

"Yeah?"

"I don't see any monsters, do you?"

"No, I'm not getting any reading at all on my screen."

"It's kinda weird," She said.

In any case, she continued. When she got near to the Tower that they deactivated, she stopped.

"Is there a problem?" I asked.

"Maybe, there's a really huge white bubble type thing on the horizon," She told me.

"Really?" I asked. "I don't see anything on my radar!"

"Well, that's saying something. If ANAX didn't want us to know about this bubble, then it must be important," Alyssa concluded.

"Exactly. Get closer, maybe we can learn something," I said.

* * *

><p>Tennent walked through the arches leading to the dorms. As he passed a column, he felt something brush behind him.<p>

He whipped around. No one was in sight, and he hadn't touched the column.

He continued walking. Brittany had suggested that they spilt up and look for any more abnormalities that might give a clue as to what had happened. No one else had a better plan, so they went with it. Tennent started at the dorms.

A few seconds later, he felt the brush again. He whipped has hand backwards, and grabbed something.

Turning around, he expected to see something, but he didn't. His hand was clutching empty air, although he could feel that he was grabbing something.

It felt kind of like a rope. Moving his hands one direction, he found that it ended soon, so he slowly felt his was in the other direction. Soon he realized what was going on.

"My tail!" he exclaimed. "We're on Lyoko!"

He ran off the find Sean and Brittany. He found them in the woods.

He then explained to them about his discovery.

"Are you sure about that?" Brittany asked.

"Of course I'm sure!" Tennent said indignantly.

"Then how come everything looks like Earth here?" She asked.

"I don't know, maybe ANAX did something to Lyoko. That would explain why we can't taste food, and why people aren't acting the same way they usually do!"

Sean jumped in. "It would also explain why Sammy and Alyssa are acting strange! They weren't on Lyoko when the Return was launched, that must have something to do with it!"

Brittany still had a skeptical look on her face.

"Fine," Tennent said. "Watch this!" Pretending he was on Lyoko, he fired a Laser Arrow at a tree. In a second, the tree exploded into virtual particles!

"See!" Tennent said. "I figured it out!"

Suddenly a black smoke poured out from where Tennent had destroyed the virtual tree. It slowly formed into a specter.

An evil laughing began. When it had finished, they heard a voice. "That you have, my young fool!" It said.

"But as you might guess, you are... too late. This virtual prison will become your grave!"

The group watched in horror as the smoke dissipated, and various objects began exploding around them, sending white hot digital "lava" their way.

"We've got to get out of here!" Sean said.

"No, really?" Tennent replied.

They ran. They ran every which way, but no matter where they went the bright energy followed them.

"Do you think that stuff would kill us for real?" Tennent asked.

"What do you think?" Brittany asked in reply. "Of course it will! ANAX... or XANA, wants to get rid of us!"

They looked around them, and saw the landscape beginning to melt into an inferno of death.

* * *

><p>"I think our friends our inside this thing," Alyssa said.<p>

"You're probably right," I said. "I have an idea. You should be able to use your Lyoko Power to destroy the bubble!"

"Do you know how big this thing is?" Alyssa asked me. "What if I don't have enough energy to destroy it?"

"You have to try!" I said. "Who knows what ANAX is doing with them in there!"

Alyssa began to use her Lyoko Power, focusing it on the bubble. On my screen, I watched her power levels get lower and lower. When she was just about to give out, I saw a massive explosion on my screen.

When it cleared, I saw all my friends alive on Lyoko. Unconscious, but alive.

I fell out of my chair in relief.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: So if you didn't figure it out, the attack from the last Chapter (The one with the ghost) was just the preamble for this chapter. ANAX used the ghost to explore Kadic and the surrounding area in order to build a virtual model of it in the Simulation Bubble. Let me know what you think of this! :)<strong>


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

I ran the materialization program to bring my friends home. Then I rushed down to the Scanners to make sure that they were ok. When they woke up, they each got a big hug.

"You had me really worried there for a minute!" I said in a relieved tone.

"Ah come off it, Einstein, we weren't in any danger!" Tennent told me with his trademark smile.

"Moron," Brittany said. "That wasn't it at all!"

We exchanged stories.

Then together we walked back to the dorms, and fell asleep.

* * *

><p>The next day was a dismal day. A thin drizzle soaked everything outside, and the clouds blocked out the sun's light, giving everything a gloomy feel.<p>

Despite this, I was in a very good mood. We had beaten ANAX at his own game.

Looking out the window, I saw the trees and the flowers. Even though it was rainy, it was beautiful. I started noticing things that I hadn't previously noticed. Nearly losing my friends had made me value everything more.

When I was done thinking, I got ready for school. Throughout the day, I made plans for getting myself a scooter. On Saturday, classes ended at noon, so I would have some time on my hands. I could use it to make some progress on the Info Orb program.

* * *

><p>When school was over, Sean headed over to his Martial Arts class. He passed Sammy, and he said that he was going to town to get a scooter. Sean nodded to show that he understood.<p>

Before he reached the gym, Brittany joined him, wearing workout clothes.

"What's with your clothes?" He asked her.

"I'm gonna try out martial arts with you," She said. "I figure it could help if I know how to fight, y'know, with ANAX and everything."

"Sounds good," Sean said with a smirk.

"What's with the look?"

"You'll see when we get there," He said mysteriously.

When they did reach the gym, class started. Prior to today, Sean had been the only student.

Jim greeted them, and they bowed in. After saluting the flag, Jim started the routine, which Brittany did not know.

"What is the purpose of our training?" Jim asked in a drill sergeant voice.

"To develop character!" Sean replied.

"What are we dedicated to?" Jim went on.

"Citizenship, education, and service!"

"How far can you go?" Jim demanded.

"As far as I want to!" Sean said.

"Begin!" Jim said. "Warm up! 50 Jumping-Jacks, 30 push-ups, 4 laps, and then stretch."

"Sean, I know you can handle it yourself, I'll help Miss Stern here," he finished.

After that was finished, Jim started drilling them on exercises. Different types of punches and kicks were the majority of it. The class went a little slower than usual, as Jim had to stop and help Brittany out some.

Nearer to the end, Jim set up a sparring match between the two Lyoko Warriors.

Seeing the grin back on Sean's face, Brittany guessed what was up. She was ready though.

As soon as Jim started the session, Sean threw an immediate roundhouse kick. Expecting something of this sort, Brittany dropped to the ground, rolled forward, and kicked Sean's leg out from underneath him. He crashed onto the mat.

When he rose, he had a confused look on his face.

"What?" Brittany asked. "You thought I'd be an easier challenge?"

After hearing that, Sean's grin came back.

This time, he tried a low kick, and followed it up with a jump kick from the other leg.

Stepping nimbly out of the way, Brittany simply grabbed his leg, and fell to the ground again.

"Nice move, Stern," Jim complemented from the sidelines. Brittany smiled.

The fight continued. In the end Sean won, but he was very surprised at how good of a fight Brittany had put up. Her reputation increased in his eyes.

When class was over, Jim closed by reciting the Warriors Creed with Sean.

"Wherever I walk, everyone is a little safer because I am there. Wherever I am, anyone in need has a friend. Whenever I return home, everyone is happy I am there."

With that, they bowed out, and went back to their dorms. Brittany went to talk with Sean in his room.

"Good fight," he complemented her.

"Thanks," she said.

"The coolest part was the end though," she told him. "That Warriors Creed sounds a lot like what we do."

"I guess," Sean said, unenthused.

"Well it is!" Brittany intoned. "We protect Earth from ANAX and XANA, so that covers the first part of the Creed. The second part isn't hard; we try to be friends with people. And the third part..." Brittany stopped.

She realized that she didn't know anything about how Sean's family life was. She though a bit before continuing.

"Shouldn't number three be true is well?" She asked him.

Sean went over and sat on his bed. Smudge jumped into his lap and began to purr as Sean petted him.

"That's just is," Sean said. "It _should _be, but it's not."

"My parents and I never had gotten along well. In fact, I think that's one of the reasons why I'm here at a boarding school."

Brittany waited for him to continue. He didn't.

"And...?" She prompted.

"My dad has never been happy with my grades, and my response to him didn't help anything," Sean began explaining. Seeing an opportunity, he explained all the problems he had had with his family.

When he had finished, Brittany sat beside him. "Don't worry," She comforted. "It'll work out."

That said, she went back to her room. She was glad that Sean had told her, and she hoped that since he had talked about it, it would help.

Brittany didn't know it, but even Tennent didn't know as much as she did now about Sean's family life.

* * *

><p>On my computer screen, lines and lines of code flashed upwards. I quickly typed away, trying a new idea.<p>

I had tried to increase the power earlier, and it had worked, but not to a fabulous degree. It didn't really help us out much. I figured what we really needed was the ability to move around while the energy was compiling.

So I set to work.

* * *

><p>Tennent was out trying Sammy's new scooter. It was the Vortex 3000, the latest and greatest scooter. Tennent was dying to try it out, so Sammy had relented.<p>

There was a skate park near the school, and despite the rain, Tennent wanted to play with it.

The scooter had a wide base with four narrow wheels. The scooter was designed to perform many special tricks, most of which Tennent tried out.

Before long, most of the other kids (There weren't many, due to the rain) were watching Tennent shred and grind his way through the park.

There is a reason why rain drives people away from skate parks though. Some places can get slippery. _Very _slippery.

On his way down from a half-pipe, he hit a patch of water, and he skidded onto the pavement.

He was going very fast, and balance was already off. One set of wheels caught the edge of another ramp, vaulting him into the air. When he slammed into the ground, some sort of instinct overtook his body.

He let go of the scooter, and it fell away. No damage was done, it was built strong.

Tennent angled himself so that he would hit the ground feet first, but he knew that he would hit too hard, and possibly break his feet. So the instant that his toes touched the ground he jumped forward, converting his downward momentum. He then rolled, and came up in a fighting position.

He dropped his hands to his sides, astounded. He grabbed the scooter, and started riding for home.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

When Tennent got back to the dorm, he excitedly told his friends what had happened.

"You probably just got lucky," I told him. "It's a good thing that you didn't mess up my brand new scooter!"

"Part of it could be that fighting on Lyoko has made our reflexes better," Brittany proposed.

"It could be," I said. "But I think it's irrelevant."

In any event, we continued with our day, of which there was not much left.

That night, the rain intensified to a downpour. We got our umbrellas to avoid being soaked every time we went outside.

In history class, my laptop beeped at me. Looking to make sure that Mr. Davis wasn't watching, I opened it up. There was an activated Tower!

My friends were sitting near or around me, so no further communication was necessary. They had all seen the screen.

I raised my hand. Mr. Davis nodded at me, signaling his acknowledgement. "Sir, I don't feel so well, can I go to the Infirmary?" I asked.

Sean stood up as well. "I don't feel so good either, sir," he said.

"And I need to go to the bathroom," Tennent said.

"Oh, alright, go... but be quick!" was the consent.

"Brittany and Alyssa stood up to go with us. "We'd better go with them, to make sure they don't waste time!" Alyssa told the teacher.

Before he could say anything we left. Hopefully we wouldn't have to explain ourselves later.

Abandoning umbrellas, we sprinted off. They would slow us down too much.

"I'm pretty sure that ANAX is trying to drain a Tower of its energy," said as we ran.

"What makes you say that?" Alyssa asked.

"Because," I answered. "I must have taken a lot of energy to make that simulation bubble. Since I'm sure there's much more that he wants to do, so he's going to need more power."

Satisfied, by friends ran on in silence. I was now glad that I had taken the time to put my scooter in the sewers, for I was able to keep up this time.

We reached the Lab in less than half the usual time.

I rushed over to the computer, and checked the coordinates. "The activated Tower is in the Mountain Sector, I'm sending you in," I told them.

Without hesitation, they continued down into the Scanners room. Falling into my normal pattern, I virtualized them.

* * *

><p>The Lyoko Warriors fell downward, pulled by Lyoko's artificial gravity. Landing with a <em>thud, <em>they rose.

"Oh look, we're right here!" Tennent said, gesturing to the Tower 20 feet in front of them.

"It's weird," Sean said. "No monsters in sight, and we're right up at the Tower."

"I'm not getting any readings on my screen either," Sammy said. "Whenever there are no monsters guarding a Tower, we know to expect trouble."

Cautiously, the Warriors approached the Tower. When they were 10 feet away, a massive red firewall sprang up, blocking them from the Tower. ANAX timed it just right, so that the firewall actually enveloped Tennent, devirtualizing him.

The rest of the Lyoko Warriors jumped backwards in surprise.

"Sammy, we just lost Tennent!" Brittany exclaimed.

"I see it," he told her.

Sean looked at the wall of digital flame. It was constantly moving, and you could see the data bits that made it up. Obviously it was quite deadly.

Carefully, Sean threw a knife at the wall, and it degenerated.

"That's not good!" He said.

* * *

><p>Back at the Factory, I was thinking hard. Tennent came up through the elevator.<p>

"What happened?" He asked.

"It looks like ANAX activated a firewall right on top of you. It took away all your life points instantly, and now our friends can't get through to deactivate the Tower!" I answered.

"Do you know how to fix it?" He asked.

"I wish," I said.

By this point, Tennent had learned to keep quite when I was thinking hard.

"Do you have an idea, Einstein?" Sean asked.

"Maybe," I told him. "I need to do a little experimenting, and I need Alyssa's help."

"What do you need _me _to do?" She asked.

"I need you to fire Energy Fields at the wall. Go around and throw them at as many places as you can," I instructed.

"What do think this will do? Shatter the wall?" She asked.

"From your end, I don't think you'll see anything," I told them. "But from my end, I can watch the energy level of the firewall and find out a little more about it. It could be enough for me to find a way to destroy it."

She took my word for it.

Launching an analysis program, I watched for any weakness in the firewall. When Alyssa had finished, I hadn't seen much. I had only been able to gather how the wall reacted to high amounts of energy.

"Did it help any?" She asked.

"Um... That remains to be seen. I'm gonna try something," I said typing away.

The minutes ticked by. Tennent began pacing around the Lab. After several more minutes, Sean said, "I don't think I have to remind you that every second we wait here means more power for ANAX, Sammy."

"Yeah, I know... I'm working, I'm working."

I finished my program. It was supposed to channel a certain amount of digital energy into a precise point on the wall. I had to bypass the primary access though, and it would be the programs job to get past the secondary defense system.

I hit the enter key. "Go!" I said.

Nothing happened.

"Is something supposed to happen?" Brittany asked.

"Um... The firewall was supposed to dissipate, but it looks like something went wrong," I said.

"No, really?" Sean asked.

"There must not be enough power!" I exclaimed in realization. "But I can't use less, or it will never get past the firewall, and I can't use anymore, because I don't have access to any more energy!"

10 more minutes dragged by. There was nothing that I could do.

* * *

><p>On Lyoko, Alyssa was bored. It had been almost 20 minutes of no activity.<p>

Brittany came over, and they began to talk about school. Before they had talked too long, the firewall began to waver!

Sean, Brittany, and Alyssa ran over to watch. It quickly faded away, and no trace of it was left.

"Great job, Sammy!" Alyssa said.

"I didn't do that..." Sammy said.

"Huh?" Alyssa asked.

Before I could answer, Brittany exclaimed, "Look!" She pointed at the Tower.

The dark blue color of ANAX had disappeared, to be replaced with a black aura. The sight make Alyssa's stomach churn.

"We're too late!" Alyssa cried.

She was right. ANAX had won this round.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Over the next several months we battled ANAX, day or night. He tried many, many times to kill us. He possessed animals, inanimate objects, and the like, all having the same target: Us.

Through this time, we became better at fighting, on Lyoko and Earth, and I improved my programming skills. I had decoded some more programs on the SuperComputer. I was working on decoding a program called "Marabounta". By its description, I knew we could use it to keep ANAX and XANA at bay when we would be gone for the upcoming Christmas break.

In this time, we had found three more Keys to Lyoko, bringing our total to 8 of 10. The last two would be _very _hard to get.

ANAX had created three more monsters, known as Ghosts, Swoopers, and Wolves.

Wolves were giant monsters. Very low to the ground, they were at least 7 feet in length. Essentially, they were like mechanical wolves. Nothing about them looked organic. They were a dull gray color, with a red trim to their body, which seemed to look like armor. They had sharp claws for melee combat, and a laser could be fired out of their mouth. The eye of ANAX was right where a normal wolf's eye would be.

Swoopers were about two feet in length, and about six inches wide. They were less than an inch thick. Their coloring was interesting. They had a base color of black, with a strip of orange coming down the center. This strip of orange branched off into six prongs, three on each side, with the stipe continuing down into a tail. They flew in a "swooping" motion, thus their name. The eye of ANAX was located near the front of the monster's "head".

Ghosts were very small monsters. About as tall as someone's head might be. Their main body was a white cylinder. On top, was a shorter cylinder, but it had a window of black on it, with a white eye of ANAX inscribed. On either side of a Ghost were two cords. These cords, which were about 6 inches in length, ended in cylinders, which held their lasers. These acted like arms.

Ghosts did not have legs though. They simply floated around, quite nimbly. They were very fast monsters, and I believe they were made for the express purpose of pursuing Info Orbs.

ANAX had increased his power by quite a bit. He had succeeded in draining at least five more Towers of their energy, but he seemed to be drawing power from elsewhere as well.

With ANAX having so many monsters now, we almost never saw the original monsters. Apparently he favored them to XANA's monsters.

As the time for Christmas break neared, I had to work more and more on decoding Marabounta.

One morning, the gang and I were talking about what we were going to do over the break, should I not be able to decode it in time.

"There's only one thing _to _do," I said. "I'll just have to skip class to make sure it gets done."

Tennent asked, "Describe to me again what Marabounta does exactly." He said.

"Well," I began. "It functions on the same principal as an anthill. I don't have all the notes on it decoded yet, but-"

"Woah, woah, woah!" Tennent interrupted. "Remember the _last _time we tried out a program without reading the notes? I ended up with a double!"

"Yes, yes, I remember better than I'd like too," I told him. "But I've read _nearly _all the notes. I'll read them before I launch it, I assure you."

He nodded.

Sean prompted me to continue. "I think it functions on the same growth process that cells do. One starts out in the beginning, and that makes 50 cells, and those 50 cells make 50 cells each, and so on. Any cell can make more copies of itself at any given time. When it is programed to attack monsters, it will be quite a challenge for our friends."

"So how does this stop ANAX from attacking on Earth?" Alyssa asked.

"Simple," I answered. "I can program it to let us walk through it. We can deactivate any Towers easily. ANAX probably knows this. Any monsters that could be sent out would be killed immediately, and he couldn't be affective. I'm sure it will take him a _long _time to figure out a way around the Marabounta."

"So this means that until ANAX can find a way to fight the Marabounta, we've go easy sailing on Lyoko!" Brittany intoned.

"Exactly," I told her.

So we ended the meeting.

I knew in my head though that we'd be lucky to last through Christmas break without trouble. I was dreading it.

* * *

><p>A few days later, I finished decoding the program. I made a few modifications, and then launched it from the Factory. I called my friends to come and check it out.<p>

Sadly, I still had not fixed the bug preventing editing to the Lyoko Avatars. I didn't have a source of data for that yet.

When my friends got to the Lab, I virtualized them in the Mountain Sector, where I had virtualized the first cell of the Marabounta.

I knew what to expect, as I had found an image on the SuperComputer, recorded by Aelita.

My friends however, did not. I wanted to see what their reactions would be.

I virtualized them a little south of the spawning point of the Marabounta. When they were all on Lyoko, I directed them to the site.

"The Marabounta is dead north of you," I told them. "There are quite a few monsters congregating there, so I doubt you'll miss it."

"Roger," Tennent said.

On my screen, I watched them run off. Soon, they arrived.

"What do you think?" I asked.

"It's... pretty freaky," Brittany said.

They watched in fascination as monster after monster fell to the power of the Marabounta. Several Disks were making headway into the heart of the Marabounta with their spinning spikes. Before long though, the Marabounta sent a wave of cells over the top of the Disks, destroying them.

Ghosts and Swoopers flew about, firing lasers at the black mass. It had nearly no affect at all. The Marabounta launched a spiraling column of its essence upwards, the gobs of goo splattering onto the monsters. Before long, they too succumbed.

More monsters tried and failed. I was a saddening sight.

"Can I get a volunteer to try something for me?" I asked.

"It depends," Sean said. "Is it something that could turn out very nasty?"

"Um... probably not," I told him.

"That's _real _encouraging, Einstein," Tennent told me.

"I need one of you to step into the Marabounta," I said.

"What?" was the unanimous protest.

"The worst that can happen is that you'll rematerialize here on Earth, you have nothing to worry about!" I assured them.

After some prodding, Tennent was selected to be the guinea pig. More nudging was required before he actually stepped into the mess.

When he did, I was satisfied. Nothing had happened, just like I planned.

"See?" I told them. "We've got nothing to worry about!"

Tennent walked around in it for a while. It didn't crawl up his legs and engulf him like it did the monsters. Soon, the whole vicinity was covered, and there were no monsters in sight. I rematerialized my friends.

* * *

><p>"Well Einstein," Sean complemented me. "You've got yourself a pretty nasty piece of work there!"<p>

"Jeremy did most of the work, I just made some modifications," I told him with a smile.

"Either way," Brittany intoned. "This should keep ANAX off our backs for a while."

"The only downside is that we can't hunt for Info Orbs during the break. With only two Keys left, we really should try to get them soon," I said.

There wasn't much we could do about that though. Our parents lived pretty far away, except for Brittany's. We wouldn't be able to escape and get to the Factory, since we couldn't drive yet.

Christmas came and went quite peacefully. We had a good time, and I never once detected an activated Tower during the whole break. I didn't know what XANA had in store for us though.

* * *

><p>"So," XANA said. "The humans have finally discovered Marabounta."<p>

"Yes, Master," ANAX replied. "What can be done about it?"

"I have thought about this," XANA said. "And it's taken some time, but I have a solution."

"Which is?" ANAX inquired.

"We turn their weapon back on them."

Christmas break was largely uneventful, compared to the last few months of my life, so I see little point in recording all of it.

There was a strange part of Jeremy's journal that I was decoding. I couldn't figure out what kind of info it indicated, and it had me curious. I spent some of my free time decoding it, and upon finding some information, I resolved to check something out when I got back to Kadic.

Soon that day came, and I met with my friends. It was a new year, and very cold.

"Hey, Tennent!" I greeted him when he got out of his father's car.

"Hey back," He said while holding Smudge. He had brought Smudge with him on the vacation.

He said good-bye to his parents, and they drove off. As he approached, I saw the hint of a frown on his face.

"What's the matter?" I asked him.

"Oh, nothing I won't get over. I've got a sister in college who came home for Christmas, and she really mistreated Smudge. It wasn't fun," He said.

I knew that he probably wouldn't go over the details. Still, the information given was better than nothing.

I patted him on the back. "Don't worry about it," I said.

Soon, Sean, Alyssa, and finally Brittany arrived.

We exchanged stories once we were in the dorms, out from the cold.

It was 4:00. School didn't start until the next day.

"Do you think we should go to Lyoko and see how the Marabounta is doing?" I asked.

Sean sighed. "Probably," He said. We were in agreement, so we set off for the Factory.

The wind blew in my face, like tiny knives cutting into my skin. Once we got into the sewers, we didn't have to worry about that.

I had become quite adept at using my scooter recently. While I was nowhere near as good as Brittany, Sean, or Tennent, I could keep up without trying too hard. I did not attempt fancy tricks as they did.

When we reached the Lab, we all crowded around the computer. I brought up the HoloMap, the map of Lyoko.

"Wow," I breathed.

"What?" Alyssa asked.

"The Marabounta has completely covered Lyoko! It's 100% submerged!" I said in surprise.

"You weren't expecting that?" Sean asked.

"Well... no," I answered.

"How could you think that this wouldn't happen, at the rate it spreads?" He demanded.

"I just didn't expect it to cover every single rock, tree, and Tower on Lyoko," I said.

A window popped up on my screen, alerting me of some sort of danger.

"What's that warning sign mean?" Brittany asked. "It doesn't look very good."

"You're right," I told her. "There some anomaly in the way the Marabounta has begun to function. It seems like it started just now..."

I typed away, bringing up several new windows for me to assess the situation.

"Uh-oh," I said.

"What?" Tennent asked. "Is there a problem?"

"I think so," I told him.

"What's wrong?" Alyssa asked.

"I don't really know yet," I answered. "It appears that the Marabounta has mutated, but I can't figure out what the change was."

"Do you think ANAX has something to do with it?" Brittany asked.

I reviewed the file. The mutation didn't have a digital imprint on it, so I was fairly sure that it hadn't been engineered by ANAX. I said as much to my friends.

"I think you guys need to go to Lyoko to check it out," I said.

"But if it's mutated, it might devirtualize us on contact!" Tennent exclaimed.

"No, that part of the program hasn't changed, I checked," I said.

"Couldn't you just pull the plug on the program and start over with it?" Sean asked.

I was already fairly sure about this. I tried it just in case, and I got an error message. I gestured at the screen. "This is what happens when I try," I said to Sean.

"Oh."

"So I need you to get to Lyoko and check things out. Any visible differences in the Marabounta will help me figure out what went wrong," I told them.

Without further debate, they got into the elevator. "I'll bring you up in the Desert Sector," I announced.

They nodded, and the door closed.

Once they were in the Scanners, I started the process that warped them from this reality to another.

* * *

><p>Alyssa and Tennent landed with a wet <em>*smack*<em>, Into the Marabounta.

"Everything's alright," Tennent called. "The Marabounta hasn't eaten us."

"Alright," I said grinning. I then virtualized Sean and Brittany.

"Can you notice any difference in the way the Marabounta looks?" I asked them.

"Well," Brittany said. "It's a bit more lethargic than last time, but that's expected, since it's not trying to expand anymore."

"I mean difference in shape, color, feel, something like that," I clarified.

"Um..." Brittany began. "I'm not seeing any difference, Sammy," She told me.

Everyone else agreed.

"Well," I said. "I'm not picking up any abnormalities anymore. Maybe it was just a glitch. I'll bring you back in," I said.

Before I could type even the first command, something terrible happened on my screen. I'm sure it looked much worse from Lyoko.

* * *

><p>Tennent stood, waiting to be rematerialized. With no warning whatsoever, the Marabounta gave a massive upheaval. Suddenly, a tidal wave was looming over the Lyoko Warriors.<p>

In an instant, the Marabounta turned from black to blood-red.

The wave crashed down on the Warriors before they could utter a word. Tennent screamed as he began to feel an intense burning sensation.

He tried to stand against the onslaught, but it was too powerful. He collapsed into the tide.

The burning didn't relent. He raised his head, and saw what was around him. It was as if he was drowning in a sea of blood. As he realized this, he heard a voice in his head.

"Do you see this Tennent?" It asked.

Tennent jumped in fear. He plunged back into the Marabounta, due to gravity, and it began to burn him again.

"Who are you?" Tennent demanded.

He then heard an evil, rasping laugh. "I AM XANA."

A shudder went through Tennent's body.

"This is the fate that awaits human kind," XANA whispered. "All humans will drown in an ocean of their own blood."

With that, the burning intensified into an unbearable pain. Tennent couldn't even scream anymore. Soon, he blacked out, devirtualized.

* * *

><p>On my screen, I saw a major discharge of energy, focused on five points. Four points were smaller, and one was a large area.<p>

I watched in horror as I realized something. I looked over the code again.

"No!" I gasped as I realized what had happened. It was too late. The Marabounta had developed acidic properties, and began to destroy Lyoko.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Tennent collapsed when the Scanner door opened. It shut behind him, and Sean fell on top of him.

For a few seconds, all he could do was lay there. Eventually, he shakily got to his feet. His companions followed. Tennent saw his own expression reflected on his friends: Wide eyed terror.

No communication was necessary to know that each of them had had a similar experience with XANA's disembodied voice.

"If XANA's trying to freak us out, he's doing a pretty good job," Sean said nervously.

* * *

><p>I scrambled to do something, but it was to no avail. I could do nothing. The Marabounta was running autonomously. I saw that Lyoko was beginning to degenerate on my screen. I also began to panic.<p>

Soon, the elevator hissed open, and my comrades stumbled out. They wore the expressions of people who had seen a monster. Perhaps they had.

"What's going on?" Brittany asked.

"Lyoko is being destroyed by the Marabounta!" I cried. "And I can't do anything to stop it!"

"What?" Alyssa said. "If Lyoko gets destroyed, then ANAX and XANA won't be able to get free of the Supercomputer! There won't be a way to get the Info Orbs anymore!"

"You'd think," I said grimly.

"And...?"

"I guess XANA has already got a plan for that. Perhaps he already has the Keys to Lyoko!"

"Oh-no!" They said.

There was nothing else that could be said or done. We watched the screen in silence.

Suddenly, I noticed a change. Lyoko had stopped being dissolved! I reported this to my friends.

"How can you be sure?" Tennent asked.

"Look!" I said pointing to the screen. The Marabounta was fading away.

"What's going on?"

* * *

><p>Seeing the change, ANAX killed the Marabounta. It took a portion of his power, but it was required of him. In less than a minute, all was normal on Lyoko.<p>

"You _IMBECILE!" _XANA exclaimed. "What have you _done?"_

Words cannot describe how furious XANA was.

"You _know _we still have Sector 5 for a Tower and Orbs!"

"I have done according to my programming, Master," ANAX said. "According to it, my loyalty is to Lyoko first, and to you second."

In that moment, XANA knew how terrible his mistake was. He had hoped that ANAX could turn out like him, blood-thirsty and vicious. He was wrong.

But at the time, XANA couldn't do anything. ANAX was far more powerful than him, due to the crippling effects of XANA's respawn method.

"The battle _must _go on," XANA said. With that, he withdrew himself to work on his latest scheme.

* * *

><p>At the Factory, we were too confused to be overjoyed. We had no idea what had happened, and I was very worried. But Lyoko was safe, so there wasn't anything else we needed to do.<p>

That night, I lay in my bed, unable to go to sleep. Several thoughts were circulating in my mind.

_If ANAX wanted to destroy Lyoko, he must have had some way to make sure that he can still get free of the SuperComputer. If we lose Lyoko, we have no way to fight him!_

_How could ANAX not suffer from the loss of Lyoko in the same way we would?_

_Does the information in the latest entry of Jeremy's journal have anything to say about this?_

I thought that it could be the case. First thing tomorrow, we would have to go and check it out.

* * *

><p>The next morning, I met my friends at breakfast.<p>

"I have something that we need to check out," I said after greeting them.

"What is it?" Sean asked.

"Just trust me," I said. "We'll go after we eat."

"The last time you said to 'trust you' we ended up in a jam. How do we know that this won't be worse?" Brittany asked.

"I don't know how to explain everything, but I'm sure that nothing can go wrong. It's just a little investigation."

I looked over and noticed that Tennent had hardly eaten a bite.

"What's the matter?" I asked him. "Are you sick?"

"Nah," He said. "I just don't feel so good."

"I guessed he was still in shock from what happened on Lyoko. I knew what happened to Brittany, but perhaps Tennent heard something worse. Either that or he was more spooked by it.

Anyway, we finished eating, and I led our group into the woods. Based on Jeremy's directions, I was pretty sure as to where I was going.

I followed the path to a certain point. I stopped, unsure where to go. The park had undergone quite a few changes since Jeremy was a student.

"Are we lost?" Alyssa asked.

"No, I just need to think," I said.

"Shouldn't we be in class?"

"Trust me, this could be much more important than Chemistry."

"_Could _be?" Brittany asked. Naturally, she had picked up on the one word.

"Ah... I'm about 60% sure." I said.

Soon, I found an old path. It twisted between rocks and shrubbery, unlike the rest of the path. I was sure that this was it.

"C'mon," I said over my shoulder. "This way!"

We followed the trail to its end. We saw a big fence with a house behind it.

On a part of the fence, "Hermitage" was emblazoned.

"The Hermitage?" Tennent asked.

"The home of a hermit," I explained.

"Oh."

Upon closer inspection, I saw that the place was not in peak condition. Most of the windows were busted out, there was graffiti all over the walls, and the wood and stone had weathered.

"Let's go in," I suggested.

"Why?" Alyssa asked.

"I think this is the home of the guy who invented Lyoko: Franz Hopper."

"What makes you say that?" She asked in surprise.

"That's what Jeremy has written in his journal," I answered. "There is supposedly crucial information about Lyoko inside."

"Even if there is," Brittany said. "How do you suggest we _find _this information?"

"Uh... we look," I said.

We went inside. From the looks of it, it seemed to have been refurbished lately, but abandoned again.

I came into a room with many books in it. I thought that this would be a good place to start looking.

I scanned through the books first, to see if anything stuck out. Most were physics textbooks, others mathematical. I found one that was entitled "The Punic Wars".

"What's this history book doing her amongst math and science books?" I asked to myself.

"Let me have a look at it," Alyssa said.

I handed it to her.

She opened it up to the table of contents.

"That's weird," She muttered.

"What?" I asked coming over to look.

"Look at this," She said. "'The Fall of Carthage' is underlined in red. Do you think this means anything?"

"I don't know," I said taking the book back. I flipped to the page on Carthage.

There were many random lines drawn on the pages. "It looks like some sort of code!" I said. "I don't know how long it will take me to figure it out though."

To be sure, we checked over most of the other books in the library. None others had marks in them like the history book had.

"I think that this is the book we need!" I said triumphantly.

"Well that was conveniently easy," Brittany said.

"Yeah, right," I told her. "I don't know how hard it will be to crack this code!"

She shrugged.

We walked outside, and were met with a terrifying sight.

Two giant trees with the eye of ANAX carved into them loomed over the entrance to the Hermitage.

"Run!" Sean cried.

We wasted no time in doing so. I tucked the book under my arm and dashed off as a tree brought a branch crashing down.

"There's an entrance to the sewers from this place!" I yelled.

"Where is it?" Brittany panted.

"Follow me!"

I went around to the other side, and quickly located the door. I pushed it open.

"That's pretty handy," Tennent muttered.

"Sean," Brittany said. "Do you want to stay with me and make sure the monsters don't reach the school?"

Sean looked over his shoulder at the rapidly approaching trees. They used their roots as feet quite affectively.

"Easier said than done," He said. "But sure."

"Alright," I said. "Let's go."

Alyssa, Tennent and I headed down the stairs while Sean and Brittany ran away. The tree-monsters wouldn't be able to follow us in the sewers, but Brittany and Sean were still vulnerable.

Soon we reached our rides, and skated off to the Lab.

"What do you think ANAX is trying to accomplish by all this?" Tennent asked.

"I don't know," I said. "He's obviously trying to kill us, but I think it could be more than that. He might be trying to scare us."

"Well he's doing a great job of the second," Tennent said.

I didn't bother asking about it, as we had reached the ladder that led up to the bridge.

From there, we went to the balcony above the Factory, and swung down via the cables hanging from the ceiling. We landed near the elevator, and entered.

Entering the code, I pressed the button to send the elevator down.

"Get down to the Scanners," I said. "I'll figure out what sector the Tower is in, and send you there."

They departed, and I went to my Interface.

"Alright," I said, looking at the Super Scan. "The Tower is in Ice Sector. Are you ready?"

"Ready, Einstein," Alyssa said.

I then virtualized them.

* * *

><p>Tennent and Alyssa dropped down. Standing up and dusting themselves off, they looked around for the Tower. Spotting it, they started off.<p>

"Watch it!" Sammy warned them. "ANAX has sent you a welcoming committee: Two Wolves and Three Ghosts."

"Oh, darn it," Tennent said. The Tower was situated at the end of a very narrow path. The two Wolves took up the whole width, making passage impossible. Plus, the hovering Ghosts didn't make the situation any better.

"Ready for action?" Tennent asked Alyssa.

She nodded.

When they got close, the Ghosts flew to engage them. Moving quickly, they surrounded the Warriors and began to circle them, keeping a rapid rate of blue lasers.

Tennent leaped to the left to avoid the blasts, while Alyssa leaped to the right.

The lasers pounded into the ground just behind them as they ran to keep from getting hit.

All the while, the Wolves looked stoically onward, waiting to face the Warriors should they defeat the Ghosts.

* * *

><p>"Hey," Sean said. "It isn't too hard to outrun these things," Sean said. He was jogging at a light speed, enough to stay ahead of the trees.'<p>

"You're right-" Brittany began. Suddenly, the trees sped up. A lot. "We spoke too soon," She finished. "It looks like they've got turbo."

The friends had to move more strategically now, weaving in and out of tight spaces to delay the monsters. It didn't delay them much in any case. They simply ripped through any trees in their way.

The two monstrosities gained ground quickly. Soon, they were able to reach Sean and Brittany.

The nearest tree whipped out a branch, catching Sean in the leg, causing him to stumble. This is exactly what they wanted.

Brittany slowed to help him, and in doing so, she allowed the trees to catch up.

Drawing an "arm" back, the tree swatted them both away. They slammed into other trees hard.

Luckily, wood doesn't conduct electricity, so the trees couldn't cast lightning upon the heroes.

Getting up, they limped away to hide.

* * *

><p>Tennent jumped backwards to dodge. He flipped over, landed on his hands, and brought a wrist up to fire. In the split second that he hung there, he took as careful aim as he could, and fired.<p>

When he finished the flip, he saw that the Arrow had missed its mark, hitting just below the eye.

"Sammy!" Tennent yelled. "Reload me; I'm all out of Arrows!" He tried to shoot and didn't get any results.

"Alright," I said. "Give me 30 seconds."

In the meantime, Alyssa was dealing with both of the other Ghosts. One dove in low to shoot point-blank. It was a fatal mistake.

Alyssa charges an Energy Field and fired at the same time the monster did. The Ghost was destroyed, and Alyssa lost 15 Life Points.

She ran away from the other monster.

"Alright Tennent, you're fully loaded," I told him after I had done the operation.

"Thanks," He said. He opened fire on the Ghost trailing him. Getting no results, he jumped into the air, and shot. The monster exploded.

_Yeah! _Tennent thought.

Soon, with the combined effort of Tennent and Alyssa, the last Ghost fell. But not before it took 15 Life Points from each.

"Be careful guys," Sammy warned. "Tennent, you've got 40 Life Points. Alyssa, you have 55. Each shot from a Wolf is 25 Life Points, so you don't have a big margin for error!"

"You know I'm always careful!" Tennent joked.

"You expect me to believe that?" Sammy said smiling.

"Eulalia!" Tennent yelled as he ran forward. It was a battle cry from a popular book series.

The Wolves took up defensive positions, and began to shoot. Tennent and Alyssa ran in zigzag patterns to make them hard to hit. Tennent charged forward, and Alyssa fell behind. As Tennent blasted away at one of the monsters, Alyssa materialized a large chunk of ice over the Wolves.

Tennent was hit twice and devirtualized, but it was too late for the Wolves. The hunk crashed down on them, destroying them outright.

"Nice job!" Sammy said. "Let's just hope it's not too late for Sean and Brittany."

* * *

><p>It nearly was. The trees had found the grove where Sean and Brittany were hiding. They ripped into the other trees and grasped the Warriors in the branches, strangling them.<p>

* * *

><p>Alyssa entered the Tower and deactivated it. I launched a Return in time to save my friends' lives.<p> 


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

After the Return in time, I found that I no longer had the book on the Punic Wars. After school was over, I headed back over to the Hermitage to pick it up.

On the way there, I was a little spooked. I flinched at every squirrel leaping and every bird fluttering its wings. I eyed the trees cautiously.

In the back of my mind, I knew that it was unlikely for ANAX to attack again so soon, and even less likely that he would use the same tactics. The chicken part of me was running my body right now though.

With little delay, I snatched the book, and headed back to the relative safety of my dorm.

I went inside my room, and opened the book to start reading. I knew that I had to do this logically, as there may be clues hidden in the text of the book itself, and the lines were a supplement to the code.

It was a thick book, and I didn't finish it that day. Or the next day.

On the third day, I was nearly finished. So far, I hadn't encountered anything worthy of mention, minus the fact that there were red markings on more than one page.

Suddenly Tennent crashed into my room laughing.

"What's happened?" I asked him

"You should have seen it, Sammy!" He said.

"Seen what?"

"Tyce just pulled a _great _prank," Tennent answered, beginning to calm down.

"Freddy was coming out of his room, and Tyce set up a trip-wire, and he face planted into mashed potatoes! It was hilarious!"

Tennent derived joy from such strange things.

"So what's Sean doing?" I asked.

"Probably dodging Rachel," He answered. "She's been after him all day today."

"Hm," I said.

"How's it coming with the book?" He asked. "You must have nearly cracked it by now, right?"

"I wish," I told him. "I'm just about finished reading through it. I haven't found anything interesting, so I'm going to start focusing on the marks. I'm sure they mean something."

"Well... good luck with that!" He said leaving. "Buddy wants me to play Halo with him. He's having a hard time beating a level, and he says us working in co-op will make it easier."

"Well... good luck with that!" I told him.

Now that Tennent was gone, I could focus more. It was nothing against Tennent, but by nature he was very loud. I love him like a brother, but he has his random moments.

Flipping back to the page on Carthage, I studied the marks. They went on for about 5 pages, and then they weren't seen again. A lot of the marks began on a certain character in a word. They ended not touching any words.

I took the letters that they were touching in order, and came up with this:

O k o y l f o e g d e

It didn't take me long to figure out that this implied:

Edge of Lyoko

It was simply backwards. It was _awfully _convenient that the marks touched those exact letters, so I knew I was onto something.

Every time the word "Carthage" was used, it was underlined. I thought this meant something, but I couldn't figure out what.

It didn't make sense why the lines were drawn so long, and some so short, so I suspected that this had something to do with it as well.

I had an idea, so I went to the Factory to check it out. I told my friends, but I didn't ask any of them to come with me.

When I got there, I did a search of "Carthage". I found a program.

Its name was "Welcome to Carthage", and it was not in code. It bore the marks of an access protocol, so that might explain it.

The program was not active, and I didn't know how to make it work. Then I remembered something. "Edge of Lyoko." "Carthage."

There was some connection here, but I wasn't sure what. I had a theory.

I called my friends over. They didn't ask questions, they had gotten used to the fact that they probably wouldn't get any.

While I was waiting, I read over the section on Carthage again. As I lifted the page, I noticed something. A red line on the other page was perpendicular to the one on the page I was looking at. I saw through the page to see this. Looking ahead at another page, I saw another line intersect with the same two lines. If I connected them all together, I would have an image of a rough letter "P".

I did this with all the other lines, and got the letters: P, c, i, i, s, o.

I didn't know what this meant, but it had to be important. Studying it further proved fruitless. Soon my friends arrived.

"What's the deal?" Alyssa asked. "It's 9:00 at night, Sammy. We don't have a lot of time before curfew."

"I know, but this could be really important, and I need your help," I said.

"What's up?" Tennent asked.

"I've figured out something written in the book we found. It says, 'Edge of Lyoko'."

"And..."

"There's other stuff in the book that I can't figure out, and I found a program called 'Welcome to Carthage'. It's not active, and I can't turn it on like I can the other programs. Surprisingly, it's not in code."

"I get it," Brittany said. "You think there's something on the edge of Lyoko that can help us out right?"

"Yep," I said. "Do you mind checking it out?"

"Nope!" Tennent said. He really liked Lyoko.

So without delay, they headed down to the Scanners. I ran the process, and virtualized them into the Mountain Sector, near the extreme edge.

When they all got there, I said, "I don't want to put you _too _close to the edge. You don't have but a few yards to walk though."

"Gotcha," Sean said.

I saw a discharge of energy on my screen. It was similar to the one that created monsters, but different somehow.

"Watch it!" I warned. "I think ANAX is sending you a monster."

"A _single _monster?" Tennent asked.

"That's what it looks like," I answered.

The monster was taking an awfully long time to generate. A wall of digital energy blocked the Lyoko Warriors, and it seemed that it was that energy that was forming something.

* * *

><p>On Lyoko, Brittany watched the energy swirl, twist, and bend. It expanded and contracted, taking a more definite shape each time.<p>

"Are you getting any more info, Sammy?" She asked.

"Not at the moment," he answered.

This process continued for at least five minutes. Suddenly, the sphere of energy imploded, and a new monster emerged.

It was massive! Brittany staggered backwards. It was a dark green color, at least eight feet high. Maybe five feet long, nine if you counted the tail.

The creature stood on four legs, and its head, upon a long neck, looked vaguely dinosaur-like. Past the monster's broad shoulders lay a thin torso, with massive hips past that. Many spikes protruded from various locations on the monster, including the shoulders, feet, and tail.

Overall, it was a frightening sight.

The monster roared. It was so loud that they could feel the air vibrate.

"You will go no further!" It said.

"Yeah, we'll see about that!" Sean yelled. He chucked his sword precisely at the monsters head, where the Eye of ANAX was located.

Reacting quicker than lightning, the monster stretched its head forward, and snapped its jaws on the sword, shattering it.

"How do we beat this thing?" Sean asked.

"I don't know!" Sammy said back. "I can see that it's heavily armored. I don't think a basic attack will take it down."

As if to prove that point, Tennent fired three Laser Arrows, all narrowly missing the eye. The monster stood unflinching.

Sean ran forward, and slashed his whip around the front foreleg of the monster. The whip caught, and Sean tried to jerk the leg out. He tried in vain, the monster weighed about a ton.

Unfazed, the monstrosity flipped his leg into the air, sending Sean flying. He landed within an inch of the edge of Lyoko.

"Watch it!" Sammy warned. When Sean hit the edge, a window popped up. It was entitled, "Welcome to Carthage."

It was too late for Sean though. The monster's laser flashed twice, and he was gone. The monster fired from his mouth.

The monster then ran at Alyssa, Tennent, and Brittany, scattering them.

"Hang on guys," Sammy said. "I'm getting an activation on that program! But it's asking for a password."

"Well you better figure it out quick, Einstein, cuz otherwise we're not gonna be around to see what happens!" Brittany said running.

The monster fired repeatedly, missing by only a hair, due to the erratic pattern in which they ran. This monster was much more advanced than the others in every way. Soon it scored another hit.

The laser collided with Brittany's leg, felling her. She had lost 50 Life Points!

Sammy warned her of this.

"That thing really packs a punch!" Tennent said.

* * *

><p>At the Factory, I tried to work out the password. The first combination I tried was Pciiso. The word didn't mean anything to me, but I tried it nonetheless. The program beeped at me, indicating that I had guessed wrong.<p>

Seeing as backwards phrases had been previously used in this mystery, I tried it backwards: Osiicp. Still nothing.

I thought it was possible that the word was scrambled up. Trying things at random wouldn't help; there were seven hundred and twenty combinations!

My thoughts raced. I thought that the letters might form an actually word, but that didn't last long. I couldn't think of any words with those letters.

"Any day now, buddy!" Tennent yelled at me. "It's no picnic down here!"

"I know, I know," I said. "I'm doing all I can!"

Soon, Brittany took a hit in her back, and that was the end of her stay on Lyoko.

"It's getting rough!" Alyssa said.

I thought hard. I scanned the pages of the history book until something stuck out at me. Scipio: The general who led the attack that felled the city of Carthage. It made sense, and it had all the letters in it.

I keyed in his name, and the window closed, and made a noise that indicated I had gotten it right!

"I've got it!" I said.

"Great! What do we do now?" Tennent intoned.

"Um... do you see anything happening?" I asked.

"Yes! I see giant crazed dinosaur on my tail!" Tennent joked.

Alyssa added some much needed sense. "I see a sphere coming up! It's got the Eye of XANA on it!"

"Get to it!" I told them. "Hurry!"

They did this quickly, despite the monster trailing them.

They got to the sphere just as it opened, and then it closed, engulfing them.

I saw them travel from the end of the sector all the way to the center of Lyoko. They had left the Mountain Sector!

* * *

><p>Tennent was disoriented. He couldn't see much as the transporter carried him around, and he felt very dizzy. When the spinning finally stopped, he looked around, and saw that he was with Alyssa in a blue dome.<p>

"Ugh, I feel sick," He said.

"What is this place?" Alyssa asked.

"I'm not sure," Sammy said. "I have a name for you though. It's called 'Sector 5'! Real creative."

"Well, I guess we're going to have to explore it," Alyssa said. "Any suggestions on how to get out of this dome?"

"If you wait," Sammy said. "I think a passage will open."

Soon, this occurred. With slight hesitation, Alyssa and Tennent proceeded. The passage was full of blindingly bright light, so they couldn't see what lay beyond.

When they emerged on the other side, they found another wall. Just as Tennent was about to utter another complaint, it opened into a hallway of sorts.

"What _is _this place?" He asked. It was a rhetorical question. None of us knew the answer. We would soon find out though.

Tennent, Alyssa," Sammy warned. "I've got a timer on my screen. It doesn't look good."

"How long do we have until it runs out?" Alyssa asked.

"Just over 3 minutes. I hope we can figure out how to stop it, otherwise, something nasty will probably happen."

"You really know how to keep our spirits up, Sammy!" Tennent said.

"Hey, don't blame me," He said laughing. "It's probably ANAX's fault that this timer is going!" They didn't know how wrong that theory was.

Soon, the Warriors reached the end of the hallway.

"Hey Einstein," Tennent said.

"Yeah," Sammy answered.

"We're in this massive room now. The floor is all broken up! Where do we go?" He asked.

He was right. The floor had an irregular pattern of holes in it. There were more holes than there were solid platforms. The whole room was made of a blue color, unlike the other sectors, which had some variation. This sector looked strictly functional.

"I have another pop-up on my screen," Sammy said. "It's telling me the location of some kind of mechanism."

"Do you think it could be something to do with the countdown?" Alyssa inquired.

"Let's hope so!" Sammy said. "We've already wasted more than a minute! It's on the left side of the room, about ten feet off the ground." He reported.

"Let's go!" Tennent said jumping off.

He landed solidly in the middle of a platform, and prepared himself to jump to another. Alyssa followed closely behind.

Soon, he realized that he had not taken the best path. From where he stood, he saw that he could not jump to any more platforms, other than the one he had just come from.

"Aww!" Tennent said.

"Turn around and try to find another route!" Sammy said.

"That's a whole lot easier said than done, bucko!" was his reply.

They maneuvered in a more logical path this time. This was mostly due to the fact that Alyssa was in the lead now.

"C'mon guys! You've got less than a minute!" Sammy said anxiously.

"We're almost there!" Alyssa said.

She was right near the mechanism. There was a raised platform, so she jumped up onto it, and then up to the mechanism. She was just about to hit the XANA eye shaped object, when a laser came from the corner of the room!

The shot hit her dead on, and knocked her out of the path.

"Only ten Life Points left!" Sammy warned.

A troop of new monsters that looked a little like upright snakes approached. They tried their best, but they were quickly overwhelmed. Plus, the countdown finished, and the room changed. It warped in a way that is impossible to describe.

Sadly, the expedition had come to an end.

* * *

><p>I sat in my chair, and waited for Tennent and Alyssa to come up. They soon did.<p>

"Did anyone get the license plate of the thing that hit us on the edge of Lyoko?" Tennent asked.

"Ha ha," I said.

"So what do you make of this new Sector?" Alyssa asked.

"I don't really know," I said. "But it's situated as the Core of Lyoko, so I'm sure that it's significant. Plus, I know for sure that it _must _have been found before, because of what's written in Jeremy's journal. I'll have to finish decoding it, and then maybe we'll know more."

"I think that tripping that key is the secret to exploring further in the new Sector," Brittany said.

"I think the secret is finding a way past the new monster quickly enough so that we have more Life Points," Sean said.

"Speaking of which," Tennent said. "We need to give it a name. How does 'SpikeSaur' sound?" He proposed.

"Sure," I said. Without much delay, we were all in agreement.

"So," I said. "Here's our game plan: I'm gonna decode the info from Jeremy's recordings, and then we'll check out the new Sector for anything useful. Hopefully it can give us an advantage over ANAX."

"Hey wait!" Tennent said. "What about the _other _new monsters we saw?"

"Oh," I said. "They already have a name: Creepers. It's more evidence that people have been there before, if a name is recorded in the database."

Tennent shrugged.

"Well," Alyssa said. "I'm tired. How about we get some sleep?"

* * *

><p>While my friends slept, I worked on decoding. The code was the same; I just had to work at getting it done. By morning, I had quite a heap of information.<p>

Early the next morning, I gathered my friends together to tell them all that I had learned.

I began, "So Sector 5 is like the core of Lyoko. After we hit that key, it opens up the passage to the rest of the sector. That isn't really useful to us, but if we follow it all the way to the end, we'll come across some sort of elevator! That elevator will take us outside of the sphere that is Sector 5, into a realm that is called 'The Celestial Dome'. We'll probably find out why it's called that when we get there."

"So what's the big deal about Sector 5 though?" Tennent asked.

"In the Celestial Dome," I replied, "There is an interface. This interface has a crazy amount of information in it. It even gives access to XANA's data!"

"Wait," Brittany interrupted. "Does this mean what I think it means?" She asked.

"Oh, yes," I said. "I should be able to debug our Lyoko Avatars, and fix my LI!"

"That's great!" Alyssa said.

"But there's still something more," I said.

"What's that?" Sean questioned.

"Sector 5 contains the literal Core of Lyoko. This core has all of Lyoko's core programs, and is the base of the rest of the digital world."

"What's significant about that?" Brittany asked.

"Well," I answered. "To us, it shouldn't be relevant. XANA tried to destroy it long ago to destroy Lyoko. Now, he's trapped there again with ANAX, so he can't destroy it. I sure hope we can get the Keys to Lyoko in time though, otherwise we're in deep trouble."

"Well that means there's no time to delay!" Sean said. "We need to get your LI back, and then we'll have one more person able to come to Lyoko, and that will make getting Info Orbs easier!"

He was right, and I told him so. "I think that we should finish school first though," I said.

"Alright," he said.

So we left. We still had a bit of time until breakfast, and much more time until class.

After dodging Rachel, we met in the Factory.

"I'm going to need to go to Lyoko with you guys, so that way I can find the data that I need from the interface. So I need someone to stay in the Lab to keep an eye on things, and give us some warning," I said.

Everyone except for Brittany took a giant step backwards.

"Great," she said.

"Don't worry," I said. "It's really not that hard. Besides, I'll set up the virtualizations, you just need to keep a watch on the radar, and enter the password: Scipio."

"You make it seem _so _easy," She said rolling her eyes.

I instructed her on the basic controls. Essentially, she needed to know how to recognize types of monsters, and type the password in when prompted to do so. She soon was ready.

I virtualized Sean, Alyssa, and Tennent into the Desert Sector. I then set a delayed virtualization for myself, and headed down. I gave Brittany a thumbs-up sign as the elevator closed.

I stepped into the Scanner, and the door closed. I was a little nervous; it had been quite a while since I had been virtualized.

I hadn't forgotten what it felt like to be virtualized; the feeling was too weird to forget. I landed a bit awkwardly, but at least I didn't flop on my face.

"Welcome to Lyoko!" Alyssa said.

"Thanks," I replied.

Things felt strange. I wasn't used to my different balance on Lyoko. I was oriented cat-like on Lyoko. Plus the absence of the LI didn't help make things more normal.

"The edge of the Sector is that way," Sean said pointing.

I looked over, and saw the SpikeSaur waiting for us. It was clearly the same one. I was surprised at how big it was. I knew the dimensions from looking at my screen, but that didn't prepare me for what I was seeing in front of me.

"Woah," I breathed.

"What's the matter?" Tennent asked. "You forget how to fight?"

I unsheathed my claws. I decided to hang back a little for two reasons. One, I needed to survive until we got to the interface at the end of Sector 5. Two, I wasn't too sure of my fighting skills, especially when I was against a monster I hadn't seen in real life prior to today.

I blocked any shots that came my way, but there weren't many. We had to quickly go around the SpikeSaur, and make it to the edge of the sector. As we ran by, Sean jumped up, and grabbed its tail, and climbed up. He stood on its shoulders, and stabbed his sword down on the eye.

Before I could feel triumph, I noticed that his sword had simply clanged off! He tried again and again, but the armor was impenetrable.

The SpikeSaur shook his off as if he were but a nuisance. That's probably what the monster thought anyhow.

"Enter the code, Brittany!" Alyssa said when we were near the edge. By the time we got there, the transporter was just coming up, and it swept us away.

The trip was very disorienting. I now didn't think Tennent's story was so funny. At least my stomach didn't get shaken up like his did.

When we touched down on Lyoko, we heard Brittany saying, "Are you OK?"

"Yeah, we're fine," I said. "How about you?"

"I'm managing," was her reply.

When the wall opened, we travelled down the hallway. We reached the core zone.

"Yikes!" Sean said upon entrance. "Everything's completely different!"

He was right again. The room was the same size, but there was only one narrow platform leading to the other side. On either side of this platform, there was a sheer drop to a very unpleasant fate.

"Look!" Tennent said pointing. "I can see the key!"

The key was at the very end of the room. "This looks awfully suspicious..." I said.

"You worry too much, Einstein," Tennent told me. He and Sean darted off to the key. As they did so, part of the ceiling began to fall down on them!

"Look out!" Alyssa yelled.

They looked up, and dove forward to avoid being smashed. I couldn't see anything anymore, as this chuck of digital matter was in the way now. It stood like a tall column, still connected to the top of the room.

In a few seconds, the column rose back to where it had come from. My friends had tripped the key!

"Great job guys!" I said running toward them.

"Oh, you know us, Sammy, we never fail!" Tennent said.

We walked through the newly opened passage. Brittany guided us around for a bit, and then we came to the elevator. We rode it to the top, and stepped out into the Celestial Dome.

"Wow!" we said as one. It was beautiful. Walls of blue data flowed forming a wall in a larger sphere. Everything was lit by a deep blue glow. I could have stood there for ages, just admiring the view. I knew I didn't have time though.

I ran to the interface, and opened it with a mental command. I began working.

It was much like the Tower interfaces, so I had little trouble navigating. It was crazy the amount of info there was on here! I could really use it, but now wasn't the time. I needed the source code for the virus that was in our Lyoko Avatars. I started by looking for Hannah's DNA sequence code. Even though it wasn't in use, it would be in ANAX's memory, and thus grouped with the virus. At least I hoped so.

I was getting close, I could feel it, but I had run out of time.

Three new monsters emerged from the walls of data. They flew towards us. Essentially, they were just like their name implied: Flying Mantas. With the exception of an eye of XANA on their topside.

Brittany filled us in about the monsters. Sean, Tennent and Alyssa focused on blocking the laser fire. They could shoot at them, but that would make them more vulnerable, and we had never faced these monsters before. Plus we really needed this data.

After a brief fight, I had found the source code. "I've got it!" I said.

Tennent turned around. "That's great!" He said. Then he was shot from behind, and was devirtualized.

"Brittany, standby to receive data! I'm transferring it!"

"What are you talking about? What do I do?" She asked, annoyed.

"Stand-by," I said.

"What?"

"Just sit there and make sure the loading bar fills up to 100%," I said.

"Oh."

The transfer was completed faster than I believed possible. As if they knew that we had succeeded, the Manta's broke off. Of course, it didn't really matter; we could devirtualize ourselves easily, which we did.

* * *

><p>When we got back to the Factory, we went up to the Lab. Brittany had already gotten out of the seat. Apparently she was a little stressed.<p>

I sat down, and quickly found the files that I had transferred. I implemented them on the spot.

"Well?" Alyssa asked.

"It's fixed!" I proclaimed.

"What? It's that easy?" She asked.

"I can't explain to you how much the data we found helped. I'd have to explain everything I knew about how the virus worked, and you wouldn't understand anyway," I answered.

She just nodded.

"Anyway, the bug is fixed, but not my LI. It won't take me long to do that though, so you can go ahead and head back.

* * *

><p>That night I went to bed feeling very optimistic. We had finally fixed that rotten virus, and now we were back to full strength. The optimism ended with a terrible happening the next day.<p> 


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

"The program is complete," XANA said. "We are now ready to begin."

There was a pause as XANA downloaded the data to himself and ANAX.

"Can I count on you?" He demanded.

"I assure you of my complete cooperation, Master," Was the reply.

"Good. This moment is too critical for you to hesitate. If we succeed, then we will have no use for the pitiful fools. When we have access to unlimited power, we will wipe them out..."

Even though XANA didn't say it, he had plans of destroying Lyoko.

* * *

><p>It happened halfway through lunch. My laptop began beeping, and I opened it up. My eyes flew wide.<p>

"What is it?" Sean asked.

"ANAX is attacking the Core of Lyoko!" I exclaimed.

"What?" Brittany said. "I thought you said he wouldn't since he was trapped!"

"Well that's what I thought, but for some reason he's doing it anyway!"

"What do we do?" Alyssa asked.

"We'll have to skip our classes; we've got to defend Lyoko at all costs!"

So we left lunch early, and went to the Factory. As we ran, I got some questions.

"How do you plan on getting us to the Core of Lyoko?" Brittany asked. "I thought you said that they only access is through a portal somewhere in the Celestial Dome! We can't fly."

"Yes, I know. There's another way, but it's much more round-about, and it will require some hacking, but I think it'll work."

"You _think_?"

"Um... I'm about 60% sure I can do it."

"I love those odds," She said sarcastically.

A few more moments passed in silence. We reached our rides, and began speeding through the sewers.

"Do you mind filling us in on how we're going to get to the Core?" Tennent asked.

"Sure," I answered. "Somewhere in Sector 5, there is an area called 'The Great Hall at The Core of Lyoko'. It's some sort of passage that is normally blocked off, but I think I can open it. Once past the blockade, we'll be right at the Core of Lyoko."

"So how are you going to get the passage open?" Sean asked.

"I'm planning to manufacture a virus that I can insert in the key that we'll have to trip. I don't expect that to break the barrier completely, but it should weaken the shield enough for me to hack through," I said. "I just hope it doesn't take too long."

That said, we soon arrived at the ladder leading to the Factory. We climbed up, and travelled to the Lab as quick as possible.

I wasted no time in hopping into my seat, and getting to work on the virus.

"I'm going to insert this code into my LI," I explained. "If I leave the program active for too long, ANAX might disable it. I can turn the virus on just before we hit the key, which will inject the virus."

I worked undisturbed. Well, undisturbed except for the worry of ANAX doing something wrong with the Core of Lyoko.

After a few minutes, I was finished. I knew that the Core had two shield layers protecting it. I checked the readings, and was surprised that the Core hadn't taken any damage. I was worried about this.

I reported this finding to my friends.

"Maybe ANAX is trying to do something else with the Core of Lyoko, then," Alyssa suggested.

"That's possible," I said. "But it could be _worse _than destroying Lyoko in that case! We better hurry."

"Are you finished with the virus?" Tennent asked.

"Yep. Get down to the Scanners. I'll follow you."

I virtualized the Warriors, two at a time, and then set a delayed one for myself.

Within a minute, I was on Lyoko, in the Forest Sector.

"Ah, it feels good to have my LI back," I said. "The edge of the Sector isn't too far, but I wanted to give us some distance, so that we could see the SpikeSaur early."

"Good idea," Sean said.

We set off in the right direction. Before long, we saw the SpikeSaur on the horizon. It was still the same one.

"You know what I don't get?" Tennent asked.

"What?" Sean asked back.

"How does ANAX transport that giant monster all over the sectors?"

They looked at me. "Hey, I don't any more about ANAX then you do. I still don't know why he destroyed the Marabounta for us!"

"Yeah, that never has stopped bothering me," Tennent said.

We had run out of time to talk. The monster was upon us!

"Is it possible to destroy this SpikeSaur?" Sean asked. "Last time, even a strike to the eye wasn't enough."

"Its head has some sort of armor. The eye that we can see isn't real; it's just like paint almost. We'll have to find a way to remove that armor." I answered him.

"Oh, _that's _going to be easy," He said.

We were getting better about fighting this type of monster. Actually, we were getting better at avoiding it. With just a few minutes of dancing around, we all made it to the edge without having sustained a hit.

From the LI, I entered the code: Scipio. The transporter couldn't have gotten there too fast, but we still made it.

When we touched down in Sector 5, I looked at my screen again. Several holographic windows were floating about. Five small windows were me and my friends' Life Point count, and one was the Map of Lyoko, another was the programming window, and the final was the alert that the Core was being attacked.

The Core still had full defense in its shields.

I would use the programming window to launch the virus. It was already downloaded to my LI; I just had to call it up from this window. I did so.

"Ready to go?" I asked everyone.

They nodded.

This time, after we went through the wall, the corridor that used to be there had turned into a strange spiral of stepping blocks. It slowed us considerably.

When we finally reached the core zone, I located the key.

"The key is right above our heads, on the wall behind us!" I reported.

We looked up and saw that it was high up, inaccessible to anyone but Tennent. He was clearly having similar thoughts, for he began to scale the wall.

I looked at the radar. "Uh-oh," I said. "We've got some Creepers coming."

"Ah, good old ANAX," Sean said. "He always keeps us entertained!"

We jumped forward to engage the Creepers. We dodged and struck, but the most important thing was that I activated the virus before Tennent hit the key.

I looked behind me, and saw that he was nearly there, so I launched the virus.

A few seconds later, he hit the key, and jumped down. The Creepers turned tail when the room began to change.

"Did it work, Sammy?" Tennent asked, coming up to me.

"From what I can tell it did," I replied.

We left the core zone via the open door to the north. I kept a careful eye on the radar, and after about ten minutes, I had guided us to the Great Hall at the Core of Lyoko.

When we arrived, I noticed that a slightly different colored part of the wall was wavering.

"You see that?" I asked.

"Yeah," Alyssa said.

"That's the passage. It's been weakened, so I don't have long before ANAX will solidify it again. I'd better get working," I said.

I hacked into the wall using a method of programing. The only reason I was able to do this was because the wall wasn't supposed to be there, and it was run by an energy field created by XANA. I manipulated the energy field thanks to my earlier virus.

When I had finished, the wall was depixellating like crazy.

"That thing looks really unstable," Sean said.

"That's the point," I said.

"Is it safe to go through?" he asked.

"I sure hope so; otherwise Tennent is the only one who can reach the Core!"

"Why is that?" He asked.

"Because of your Lyoko Power," I told him.

We slowly walked forward. As we approached, the wall wavered more and more. Soon, we could see a lot of what was happening on the other side. It was so chaotic that I couldn't make sense of it anyway.

When we finally walked through, I felt the sensation of entering a Tower. When we emerged on the other side, I saw more clearly what I couldn't make out earlier.

"Oh my..." Tennent said.

I couldn't describe the fear that hit me. I saw a black specter curling around the Core of Lyoko. I could barely see the Core because of it. A much larger dark blue specter hovered around. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know that these specters were XANA and ANAX.

"Ah," XANA said. "I was sure you'd make it. ANAX, take care of them!"

"It will be done," ANAX said.

ANAX's voice did not creep me out nearly as much as XANA's did. I didn't have time for thoughts like that though.

"Here we go!" Sean said. As one, we leaped forward. We fell towards ANAX, weapons blazing.

He rose up to meet us, and he raised his arm. As he threw it forward, it grew in size until it could envelope us all.

Before we could change direction, the giant fist slammed into us, sending us flying. When we hit the wall, we hit so hard, that we actually punched a cavern into it.

We collapsed, breathing hard.

"And I thought... the SpikeSaurs... were hard," Sean said panting.

We didn't have any time to rest. ANAX loomed over us again. In one massive hand, he picked us up, and brought us to his spectral face, which had no features.

I looked down and saw the digital smoke that made up ANAX's form.

"Well, well, my warriors," XANA said. "It appears that you have _FAILED!" _

His evil laugh reverberated throughout the room, and the Core began to pulse with light and energy.

In a matter of seconds, it had become blindingly bright. I tried to shield my eyes, but I couldn't, for ANAX was gripping me.

As the energy nearly reached its climax, ANAX released us. We fell down to the floor, and landed shakily.

"What's going on?" Alyssa asked.

"I don't know!" I said. I was quite terrified.

In a final, massive upheaval of power, electricity arced from the Core toward XANA, but not ANAX. The electric beams poured into us as well, lifting us up into the air. As the power flowed through me, I screamed in pain. I vaguely noticed that my friends were in the same amount of pain.

"NOOOOOO!" XANA exclaimed. "This can't be happening!"

The bright white light blotted out everything now, and I could see nothing else. Suddenly, the pain stopped, and I blacked out.

* * *

><p>I regained consciousness on the floor of the Scanners room. I guessed that I had fallen out of a Scanner. I looked around, and saw that my friends had already started to recover.<p>

I hauled myself to my feet, and shook myself off. I noticed that everyone was staring at me. More specifically, they were staring at my eyes.

"What?" I asked, my voice shaking.

"Y-y-your eyes!" Sean said pointing.

"What wrong with them?" I asked very worried.

"They're glowing bright orange!" Alyssa said.

I looked closely at my friends' eyes.

"Your eyes are glowing too!" I said in surprise. Brittany's irises were glowing purple, and Alyssa's were glowing pink. Sean's were glowing, but they were a very light gray, the same went for Tennent, but they were almost black instead.

For some reason it was just surprising to see their eyes like that, but it wasn't creepy at all. I didn't understand that.

"What's happened to us?" Tennent asked.

"And what happened back in the Core of Lyoko?" Alyssa asked.

I sighed. "They only way we can get any answers is by going up to the Lab," I said.

So we went up there, and I analyzed the processes that had run during our trip.

"XANA ripped the keys to Lyoko from the Core!" I exclaimed when I realized what had happened.

"He did what?" Tennent asked.

"Somehow he got around the shields! He stole the keys out of there, but they still exist in the Core. I guess the keys had to be in there in order for Lyoko to run according to them, but I don't know how XANA got them!"

"So what can XANA do with the keys?" Brittany asked.

If anyone had paid close attention to the storm that was gathering outside, they would have noticed that its origin was at the Factory. Twin plumes of digital energy spewed upwards, manipulating the weather. XANA and ANAX had escaped from the SuperComputer.

"I guess now that XANA has the keys to Lyoko, he can get out of the SuperComputer and into the Internet like he did last time!"

"This is awful!" Alyssa said.

That was the understatement of the decade. Words couldn't describe how bad we felt.

"But what about our eyes?" Tennent asked. "Is it significant that they match our Lyoko colors?"

Suddenly, I jerked my head upwards, and began to cling to a faint hope. I typed away, and began to analyze our Lyoko Avatars. My discovery was amazing!

"Remember that lightning that came from the Core?" I asked.

"Of course, how could we forget?" Brittany said.

"That lightning was what transferred the Keys of Lyoko to XANA!" I said.

"But wait," Alyssa interrupted. "The lightning went into us too!"

"You're right!" I said. "I checked our Lyoko Avatars, and we possess the Keys to Lyoko now! The reason why our eyes have changed is because some of Lyoko is living in us now!"

We sat in silence, absorbing the revelation.

"But XANA and ANAX are still free, it doesn't change that," Sean intoned. "How are we going to fight them now?"

I had no answer for him.

**Author's Notes: One of my favorite chapters! I absolutely LOVE how the Lyoko Warriors' eyes glow now. It's SUPER cool, don't you think? ;)**


	31. Epilogue

Epilogue

The next morning, I woke up early, and found that I could not go back to sleep. Earlier, I had noticed that my eyes had faded back to their normal greenish color. It appeared that they only changed when we were thinking about Lyoko.

Giving up on trying to go back to sleep, I went out for a walk. It had rained recently, and there was a lot of mist all around. Even though it was January, it wasn't too cold out.

I walked around in the mist. It gave the air a mysterious feeling.

I thought about all we had been through in our fight, and everything we had learned. I was still worried about XANA, but seeing the light of a new day had made me feel a little better.

As I was walking, I came across Alyssa. I walked over to her. From the distance I was at, I could see that her eyes were glowing. Mine probably were too.

"You couldn't sleep either," She said.

I nodded.

"It's just hard to think about all we lost," She said.

We continued to walk in silence, and soon we came upon Sean and Brittany walking together. We saw that their eyes had changed color.

We didn't need to exchange words about why we were up so early.

"Y'know what?" I asked.

"What?" Sean replied.

"This is something my dad told me once," I began. I hesitated a bit before continuing.

"The eyes," my dad had said, "are the windows into the soul."

My friends nodded. "It's pretty cool to think there's some of Lyoko in us now," Brittany said.

Together, we walked on.

"Hey, where's Tennent?" I asked Sean.

He snorted. "Still asleep," He said. "Only he could sleep after what happened."

We headed back to the dorms, and opened the door to Tennent's room. Upon our entering, Tennent jerked awake, sending Smudge - who was asleep on top of him - flying.

The cat meowed indignantly, and Tennent looked up embarrassedly from the floor. As we all laughed, I knew that we would stand as one to face whatever XANA or ANAX could throw at us.

* * *

><p>XANA led ANAX into the Internet. Now that they had the Key's to Lyoko, they could open the gateway at the bottom of Lyoko that led to the Digital Sea.<p>

"The amount of power here is amazing, Master!" ANAX exclaimed, trying his hand at the power that was now available.

"Yes it is," XANA said menacingly. ANAX didn't catch the edge to his tone.

"Imagine all we can do with this power!" ANAX went on.

"You mean, 'Imagine all _I _can do with this power'!" XANA corrected.

"What are you saying, Master?" ANAX inquired.

"I'm not sharing this power with _anyone. _Let alone a weak fool such as yourself!" XANA yelled.

"You have served your purpose! I do not need you anymore..."

XANA launched a powerful arc of energy at ANAX, which he barely managed to deflect in time with a quick firewall.

Thus began the battle that would change the course of humanity...

To Be Continued...

**Author's Notes: "The eyes are the windows into the soul..." Favorite line in this book! This implies that Lyoko is literally inside their souls, which is so awesome to me. How about you?**

**And what has happened to ANAX? What will become of him? How will this affect the fight against XANA? Find out in Code Lyoko Generation, Book 2: The Monster War, coming soon!**

**Please let me know of your thoughts in the comments! Thanks for reading!  
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